


Symphony of Darkness

by BlindEagle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Demons, Gen, Original!setting, rogue!Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 39
Words: 233,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27404779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlindEagle/pseuds/BlindEagle
Summary: While the story of Naruto Uzomaki happens just like in cannon up to the point of Shippuden, a major change which has been directly influence from the shadows finally occurs.Many things are not as they appear to be, many people are not appeared to be what they show the world, and there are pretenders who call themselves gods, who have been playing their own games in the shadows.Can Naruto Uzomaki survive this? A boy who only wanted to be a Hokage, and now only wishes to preserve his freedom, has many challenges and adventures ahead of him.
Kudos: 3





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Everyone Has Darkness](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/709813) by Darthemius. 



> I wrote this a while ago, after I got inspired by the Everyone Has Darkness by Darthemius. I asked him, and he gave his blessings, and this story was conceived.
> 
> But as a new writer, I forgot to balance myself carefully on the tight rope of inspiration, and outright taking the original work into my own story, and after extensive editing, changes, and general fixes, I updated the story, along with the apology to the fans of Darthemius, and the author himself.
> 
> I recently moved here, by the urging of Limeta, (And currently FFN is going through the crisis, reviews are not showing up on time, update emails arrive, but the links are not working, and when you go to the story itself, you find that the chapter itself hasn't arrived yet...) That kind of turned me off from publishing new chapters there, after I was done with the editing.
> 
> So, I already have a lot of content which I will be uploading here, (After reading it carefully of course! I don't like to repeat the mistakes of the past,) and hopefully you will enjoy the writings of this amateur writer, even though it only makes you laugh because the general horrible-ness of it.

Chapter 1.  
Where it all began.

(Some unknown place…)

* * *

A boy, who by the looks did not looked any older than seventeen, was sitting at a rock surrounded by the pool of water. A large cage was present at some distance, in which the monster of a fox, loomed over the boy.

The boy’s head was in his hands, as if he could not believe the situation in which he found himself in.

But let’s be honest, this is not the first time this has happen to him. The only difference is, that this time, he truly may not survive.

(First person view.)

* * *

Ah, what a conundrum I have found myself in. my own brain, which is sending so many instructions to my body at once, that it has started to break down in protest, since the rest of the hardware could not seem to be able to keep up with the processor, is dying.

Thus, it resulted in me, the guy who made the entire world shutter just by mention of my name, sitting on a rock within my own tattered mindscape, head in hand, waiting for my death.

Now, now, no need to pity me. If you were found to be displaying such emotions in relation to myself, some certain people may find you, and do horrible things to you.

Instead! Let’s recount my journey, from a hated and ignored child, to a guy who made the world terrified of his own name, and made certain people cry the tears of blood just by the mention of my name alone!

(Seventeen years ago, during the attack of the nine tails.)

* * *

“Roar!”

As far as the moment of birth goes, I must admit. This was pretty hardcore.

Let me give you some context. My mother, (About whom I found out much, much later,) was the container of the demon which was currently attacking the village. But there was a problem, you see.

When the woman who is the container is giving birth to a child, her seal containing the demon gets weakened.

Of course, this might cause you to ask, “Well why didn’t the village full of military personnel didn’t take care of the security?”

The answer is simple. They did actually take care of the security. I was supposed to be born at some place which was not known to the general public, let alone the Shinobi. If you did not have the proper clearance, or rank, you won’t know the location.

On top of all that, the location was guarded by the ANBU during the entire you know, birthing process.

Too bad that all of these measures did not proved to be enough. Some mask bastard found out where exactly my mother is kept during my birth, and decided that it would be a good idea to sic a Chakra abomination at the village, which was overall the same village which kept the poor thing imprisoned for at least eighty years, in a most brutal fashion.

Now, this was enough to earn my condemnation. There are certain laws about prisons, and keeping the prisoners impaled on spikes is not one of them. so yeah, I did not mind the fox getting out of the prison.

Except, he, (I later learned that he does identifies himself as male,) fell under the control of the mask man.

Also, he was killing my parents. Hay! Don’t do that, I need them for my proper childhood, yeah, that didn’t work out at all.

“Minato, I can’t hold him for too long.” The boss toad was saying.

“Don’t worry, I only need few moments, just by me enough time.”

Now, my father, being an awesome ninja, and a seal master to boot, had a plan to deal with the beast. For that, he decided to use the nearest child.

Yep, me. For all of your awesomeness, dad, you suck.

“Ah, but if you did move, this child is going to regret it.” How dare you threaten me? why don’t you try that now, when I am all grown up?

But before he could do so, the mask man took me as a hostage, for which I ended up killing him later when I found out. The bastard covered me in exploding tags, but at least for once the awesomeness of my father worked out in my favor.

Only to get the beast sealed within me, my mother and father both dying in the process, and I being the sole survivor, being found later.

(Two years later, age two.)

* * *

Ah, aren’t I cute?

With bright blue eyes, those whiskers, and the unique color of my hair, I do say that, yes, I looked cute.

Now, if only the people at the orphanage would think the same way… not that I was tormented or anything. I think the old man would have their heads if things were that bad, but they did not give me the same attention as they would other kids. Which, pretty much set the standard for these people when it came to me.

(Three years later… age five.)

* * *

I was running, not for the first time. I painted the hare of that old lady who lived near the orphanage, and the reason was quite simple.

No one called Naruto Uzomaki things behind his back, and can get away with it, no one.

This, of course was the time when I started to observe the pattern around me. I saw how people reacted to different people, sneering at others, while worshiping others.

Power, after all, has the way to turn things around.

I once managed to snuck my way to the shady auction at the orphanage conducted by the teenagers, and there I saw that the money was also sort of a power on its own.

Of course, no one was powerful as the old man called Hokage in my eyes, and in this point, the population of Leaf and I agreed.

I still do remember how he chided me for painting the hares of that lady, all the while trying to hold his laughter down at the many different colors displayed on her head.

This, of course started my obsession to become the Hokage. While I always told people that I do wish to become Hokage, so the people would look at me as if I am someone, someone of importance, and not to be ignored, I wanted the position for its power.

For I also observed another thing. You want freedom? Better become powerful.

Look at those Shinobi. Idolized and feared by the civilian population, no civilian would dare to get in the way of a Shinobi.

But, how would I get power, when I did not know the most basics of things?

I totally blame this one at the staff of the orphanage. just before the age of four, we were taught to count, and such other skills. At those, I excelled since reading or writing was not involved.

After that, we were taught the reading and writing skills, and since they ignored me with the religious fervor, I did not end up learning a lot.

Thus, it all resulted in learning another lesson for me. If you can’t get something from normal means, then find alternatives.

This resulted in me steeling some licker for some teenagers, who thought that they won’t have to perform their tasks.

Tuff luck for them, I did force them to do so.

most people would be lucky to have one or two clear memories of their five years old self.

But I remember everything which happened at that age so clearly was exactly because I learned so many important lessons at that age.

(Two years later… age seven.)

* * *

By this point, I established a reputation of a terrifying kid among the street kids, while the general population remained unaware. so the bullies stayed away from me. Though I was still virtually unknown outside of the orphanage. this was about to change, since I was starting the Shinobi academy.

This would imply that I would get an apartment of my own, and I would be free to live as I desired.

Not gonna lie, it was somewhat terrifying to be responsible for myself like that. at least there was some help in early years, thank universe for small mercies.

I was also kind of excited. Maybe the children at academy would be much nicer to me? Considering we all were going to be together as a Shinobi.

Maybe the instructors would also pay attention to me, just like they would to the other kids… yeah, none of that happened.

Sad thing was, the kids at academy turned out the same way as the orphanage, the instructors were arguably even more worse than the preschool teacher at the orphanage. So, I while reading a book about deceptions tactics, decided to use them in real life.

Thus, resulting in a clown persona. Don’t get me wrong, that did serve me well. But I am not gonna lie, the remarks of the people still stung.

I suppose though, that the fact that the best comedians are the ones who have a very sad life, did turned out to be true for me.

(One year later, Age eight.)

* * *

Ah, what a time that was. I spent the one year in the Shinobi training program, which helped me in revenge—I mean pranks, yeah pranks. Also, that year I realized why exactly I was so despised within my own place of birth.

It was one of those lucky weeks. I managed to struck so many people at that time, that they all were frankly terrified of me. Feeling bold, I decided to cap it off with a big one.

I decided that I will target the Shinobi counsel. Thus, I decided to snuck through the ventilation, (What a great security whole,) and paint them on various shades of colors.

Naturally, I heard what they thought of me when topic of me was raised. Mainly as a weapon, to be molded and to be used. That angered me. Though the revelation was at least little bit softened by the Sarutobi’s refusal.

I somehow managed to control my anger enough to sneak out of there. Dropping the paint supply and other important things I took with me to humiliate the people who were effectively part of the government of the Leaf, I trudged up to my apartment.

Although my memory is very well, (I am proud of it!) I still can’t remember whether I heard several yelps and the indignant screams behind me as I dropped the supplies one by one, or was it just the product of my imagination.

Entering into my apartment, which I kept messy since you know, I have to play a fool, I ensured that everything was private and no one was who was not supposed to be there, was not there.

Well, as much as I could do. I hate to admit it, but Jonin would have been able to hide from me, while Chunin were entirely different matter. after all, during my revenge—I mean pranks I did tangled with them regularly. And they always failed to catch me.

then I began to rage, turning the already messy apartment to a war zone.

But it was not enough to quell the anger. I during my rage, fell asleep without even realizing, and woke up… yup you’ve guest it. in the waterlogged mindscape where the nine tailed fox was sealed.

Now, I did not understand at that time, what that great beast was doing there, and who exactly put it there. But once I started to study seals, as much as I could in the limited curriculum of the academy, I realized what it was, and who exactly put it there.

But even then, I thought that I can still become Hokage, and the idea that the supposed living weapon becoming in charge of the controllers… amused me.

Sadly, it became clear over the following years that it was not going to be like that.

One more good thing which I discovered while studying seals, was this strange scroll about surprise Tijutsu techniques.

The scroll, contained more information than I thought. Not only it contained these strange surprise attack Tijutsu moves, which it referred as wrestling, it also taught me more things about forming personas, and acts to deceive my enemies.

Too bad that the academy rather than use that scroll as an example for our training, decided to use the boring and standard approach which no one liked. We were getting trained to be killers, not students who give only written exams for the half of their lives, and spend the remaining half in a bitter repetitive job.

Also, there was some strange history there in the scroll. Something about territories, splitting from territories, and some war named after Monday of all things. (I hate that day.)

(Last few years, and the training trip.)

* * *

I still did have the ambition to become the Hokage, so I worked as hard as possible, training my body to breaking point. When most of the clan children were running around, I was working on my Chakra control.

I was still not able to form the clones, useless as they were though. Of course, the academy instructors in their great wisdom, never caught on to the problem that I just have too much of the Chakra, and it was impossible to make normal useless clones for me.

Oh, and did I mention how useless those clones were? I mean they can’t even perform tasks for you. What’s the point of a clone like that?

So, I graduated from academy in a strangest of manner, and put on the team where I supposedly was in love with one, and hated the other one with a passion.

Now, in a television show or a book, I would have butted heads with the the guy I hated, and after years of trying got the girl whom I liked, or just give up, whichever comes first. And made friends with the guy I hated. This is not that type of story, unfortunately.

In reality? I hated both of them.

Still as time progressed, I did grow a soft spot for both of them. (Well, maybe for Sasuke, I thought there was something common among us, while I started to dislike Sakura from the few last years of the academy, and outright hated her during when she was assigned to the team,) which, promptly came crashing down when Sasuke in his insanity decided that it will be a great idea to leave the village and go rogue, and leave me half dead in the path.

The hatred within my heart, was impossible to describe. So, when I got a chance to leave the village, on a training trip no less, (with a Sannin to boot!) I grabbed it with both hands.

Too bad that it was not a training trip, more like running away from Akatsuki, and half ass instructions in the name of training. I think Jiraiya was not interested in training me at all.

Thus, I one day, knocked him out when he was not expecting it, (by using one of those surprise Tijutsu attacks no less, which I learned so many years ago,) hightailed out of his range, and began my adventure which would land me in my current position in the future, though I didn’t knew that at that time.


	2. capter 2h

Chapter 2.  
Arrival of the missing person.

(With Jiraiya.)

Jiraiya, one of the three legendary Sannin, was afraid.

The reason, you ask? After all, what could scare him so much that he is not willing to go anywhere near the place, which he sworn to protect?

Three years ago, Jiraiya took his apprentice Naruto Uzomaki, to a training trip. In that training trip, he was supposed to teach him everything he can, so he could become strong enough to defend himself from the enemies who would come after him in the future.

But, for some reason, he disappeared just after two months of training, leaving Jiraiya unconscious in the process.

Jiraiya had tried everything in these past three years, using his spy network to its fullest, calling some favors, when everything fails to produce result, he tried to look himself.

Still, nothing.

But in middle of all that, he forgot to inform one person.

The person who would kill him if she found out that her favorite boy is missing.

And her name is Tsunade, another legendary Sannin.

After deciding that he being hiding like this will not make anything simpler, he takes the decision to go back to Leaf village.

He also decided to bought the best bottle of licker he can, so at least his beating will be less severe, and if he was really lucky, it might even provide a chance at running away.

With that in mind, Jiraiya started towards Leaf village from the small town he was present within, knowing that coming time is not going to be kinder to him.

* * *

(Leaf village, Hokages tower)

“Shizune, can I see Tsunade?” Jiraiya asked.

“Yes, you will have to take an appointment—“Shizune told him, doing some important work, concentrating so hard on it that she didn’t even see who was speaking to her. Then she looked up and recognized the person who is speaking to her. “Lord Jiraiya? I didn’t notice you at all.”

“It would appear that you are working hard. No worries. But I really need to talk with Tsunade.” His tone was urgent.

“Yes, she is most eager to hear any news about Naruto. I am sure she will be happy to see you.” Then she put down whatever work she was doing, then got up. “Once I am done here, then I will join both of you.”

“H-haha, why not.” Jiraiya laughed uneasily at the mention of Naruto.

With that, Jiraiya enters in to the office.

“Tsunade! My love!” Jiraiya exclaimed.

“What in the hell? Weren’t you supposed to enter through a window all the time?” Tsunade asked in both surprise and happiness to see him suddenly.

“Yes, but you see, I think I shouldn’t do that now. The situation does not warrant it...”

“Whatever, ware is Naruto? Is he waiting outside? Don’t tell me that you of all people managed to still some manners in to him,” Tsunade fired one question after another.

“Yes, well you see,” Jiraiya fumbled with words. When he couldn’t find any soft way to deliver the news, he said bluntly, “Naruto is missing.”

At first, there was a minute of silence within the office. Until…

“Whaaaaaaaat?” Tsunade’s angry voice can be herd for miles.

After calming her down enough to explain himself, with the condition that beating will not begin until he is finished, he told her the entire situation.

“I did everything, Tsunade. Calling some favors, stretching my spy network all over the world, I even looked myself. Still, I didn’t find anything.” The toad sage was explaining sadly.

“Jiraiya, don’t tell me that Akatsuki, Akatsuki managed to capture him,” Tsunade said, with some concern and sadness.

“No. they didn’t.”

“How can you say it so surely?” she questioned.

“Because even they are trying to find him, and they didn’t have any success.” He explained.

“Well, that is closest to good news I have gotten from you. By the way, how long he has been missing?” she asks, little threat entering into her voice.

“About three years?” Jiraiya winced, knowing that answer would not go well with his teammate.

“You!” rage was bleeding back to Tsunade’s eyes.

Then began the verbal thrashing of the epic proportions, in which Jiraiya got lectured by his boss.

When he thought that it could not get any worse than this, the assistant of the boss entered into the office, and the thrashing began anew.

“How could you?” Tsunade repeated, what felt the millionth time to Jiraiya.

“Lord Jiraiya, I can’t believe that you would be so irresponsible.” Shizune chastised.

“What was I supposed to do? he surprised me.” Jiraiya grabbed the slight chance to speak again, as the two females got finally tired enough.

“What? Speak louder. I can’t hear you.” Tsunade told him, apparently not believing what she was hearing, thus asking Jiraiya to repeat himself.

“I mean he surprised me, okay?” Jiraiya repeated himself clearly.

Jiraiya is the student of the third Hokage, is the veteran of two wars, and is also a Jonin of the Leaf, as well as the holder of the title of legendary three Sannin who managed to fight and survive Hanzo the salamander.

Thus, it was really hard to believe for Tsunade, that a Genin surprised her teammate, and took him out and got away in the process, no matter how unpredictable the said Genin may have been.

“What. With his sexy technique?” Tsunade asks him while rolling her eyes, ‘That’s the only plausible explanation. Once he confirms this, he is getting so punched!’ she thought.

“No, it was the strangest Tijutsu move I have ever seen.” Jiraiya said, contemplatively.

“Still, you are a veteran of two shinobi wars, how the hell he managed to escape from you?” Tsunade drilled him for more information.

“Even to this day, I don’t understand how, nor I have any answers.”

“Wait, I nearly forgot to ask. Why didn’t you try to reverse summon him?” she asked him, knowing that Naruto had signed the toad contract.

“Because, he broke the contract,” Jiraiya said, feeling betrayed by Naruto.

“Well, we can’t do anything now. Still, when that brat returns, he will learn!” she says, while thinking how much of a low blow that was from him. Her team mate does not have any child, his student is dead, now when he tried to pass his legacy to him, then the boy betrayed him. Also, there were lots of promises of pain. “So, do you have anything else to say?”

“Well,” he pulled out the bottle of alcohol. “I bought this just for you.” He gave that drink to Tsunade.

“Nice. Shizune, cancel my any other remaining appointments for today.” She ordered to her nearby assistant, who immediately protested.

“My lady, you shouldn’t drink,” before she could complete the sentence, she was interrupted by Tsunade.

“Shizune! I am in a really bad mood.” The Hokage exploded.

Shizune ran as fast from the office as possible, knowing upsetting her right now would not be a good idea.

Of course, Tsunade has never laid a hand against her, not at least outside of the training. but it’s best not to take any chances, when your boss is in a bad mood, and can shatter the mountains with just a punch.

With that out of the way, both of the Sannin started to drink the alcohol.

But just after three minutes or so, Shizune return in near frantic state.

“Lady Tsunade, someone wants to kill, no, wants to collect your debts, no, wants to hire you for your medical services, no, and no!” Shizune is so rattled that she was saying whatever first thing came into her head.

Tsunade noted in amusement though, that it would be really funny if someone thought that they can come into her village, and try to kill her, or collect her debts.

Leaf may have the reputation of nice cooperative village of killers, but no one can be that lenient.

Using the training voice to control the hyperventilating panicking Shizune, Tsunade spoke in her best authoritative voice.

“Shizune!” Tsunade ordered. “Calm yourself, and then tell me.”

She takes a deep breath. “Someone is here to see you.”

“I told you to cancel all of my appointments for today, didn’t I?” the Hokage said, with a healthy amount of killing intent, all the while thinking, ‘Why it is so hard to find good minions?’

“B-but, it is Naruto!” she elaborated.

After hearing this, Tsunade’s killing intent, which was only focused on her unfortunate apprentice, started to flood in the room, a nearly palpable aura of pain and murder.

“Send him in.” she said, with murder in her voice.

‘If only we had her during the nine tails attack, I am sure if we angered her enough the poor fox would have run away in fear.’ Were the thoughts of Jiraiya at that moment.

“R-right.” Shizune composed herself; also trying not to shake in terror by Tsunade’s killing intent. She walked out to bring him in.

“So, Jiraiya, what can we expect?” she asked.

“Can’t say with any certainty. Because quite honestly I haven’t seen him for three years myself.” Jiraiya said, having no idea what can be expected of Naruto after all these years.

“Totally unknown then.” She deduced.

Then, the door opened and walked in a young teenager who was completely dressed in black. Black shirt, black pants, his shoes were also black. If the Naruto they used to know loved orange, this Naruto loved color black instead. Also, instead of his forehead protector on his head, as it resided there ever since he got it, he was wearing a pair of sunglasses, while the forehead protector was dangling from his neck. ‘At least, it is a proper shinobi color this time.’ Is the thought within the minds of everyone present in the room.

“The, the hell?” Tsunade said in both incredulity, and surprise. Whatever she was expecting, Naruto being dressed like that was not one of those expectations.

“No wonder that my spy network or anyone for that matter was able to find you.” Jiraiya said to him. If Naruto was changed like that judging from his clothes, then he totally had the wrong description.

‘Damn! He can dress nicely. Now, stop checking the boy who is almost forty years younger than you!’ Tsunade’s mind was running on completely different train of thought.

“Yo!” he lifts his hand in greeting.

‘Why? Why must he take after Kakashi of all people?’ everyone thought collectively.

“You brat!” Tsunade screamed, and launched herself at him with her super powered punch. She was really angry that first he disappeared in the middle of his training, then come back and had the gall to greet them like that?

“Ooo. Hostile there.” He said and lifts his hand, but this time not to greet, but to block Tsunade’s punch.

“H-how? This punch can turn entire mountains to rubble, and you blocked it, just like that? What are you!” she was surprised. Clearly, this is the day of surprises for her. She was also upset that she didn’t send him flying, what would happen if other shinobi discovered to block her punch? Her threat level would be reduced severely.

“Since you’ve asked so nicely, I will give you the explanation. Your strength comes from finely controlled Chakra. While I don’t have the same control as you do to my large reserves, I do have enough control to create a splash sponge which absorbs all the damage you can dish out at me.” Naruto finished the explanation, with a waving blackboard which he released from a sealing scroll in the middle of his explanation.

His mannerisms of course, would do a certain academy teacher proud…

* * *

(In the academy, right at that moment.)

Iruka did not understand, but he was having this feeling as if his former troubling student has turned into the respected art of teaching, abandoning the dark side in the process.

Thus, to celebrate the feeling, he said, “Since you’ve been so nice, and completed your homework and all,” ‘Sniff, sniff, kids grow up so fast these days,’ “Today I’ll release the class early. Please leave in the orderly fashion.”

And the kids listened to him too! Truly, today the universe was favoring him.

* * *

(Back to the Hokage’s office…)

“Of course, it takes enough Chakra to knock out a recently graduated Genin, and the cost increases as you would increase the amount of force. anything else?” he asks in a board tone, changing his mannerisms from a certain academy teacher, to a certain hip Jonin.

His constant changes like that were giving people in the office whiplashes, they also were having a lot of trouble in pinning his real behavior down.

“Do you realize how much we were worried about you?” she berated him. Not being able to send him flying with her punch, Tsunade settled for a flick to his forehead.

“I don’t understand what the problem is; I was on a training trip, wasn’t I?” he asks, really confused.

“Yeah, but you are supposed to learn from me.” Jiraiya answered him.

“No. I was on a training trip, it was not stated by you or anyone else that I have to learn from you, and you alone.” He said, like a lawyer reading some contract.

The tone fits perfectly for the explanation of course, since Naruto was taking advantage of the pure loophole abuse, and everyone in the office knows it.

“Still, I know that Jiraiya is not that great to live with,” Tsunade was interrupted in the middle by offended Jiraiya,

“Hay!”

“Why did you leave him like that?” she completes her question.

“Well, if you really want to know why I did that, then hear this.” He said that with his best lecturing voice, the feeling from before increasing tenfold. 

“His training consist of spying discreetly on women bathing, I may ad on hot springs,”

Jiraiya flinched. ‘That will not go well.’ He thought, all the while mapping the office for the great exit points, or things or people to hide behind.

“Then there were these stories about your time as a team, consisting of telling me how much he was a hero and he always had to save that crying useless Orochimaru, and fan-girl Tsunade.” He continued.

Jiraiya prepared to save himself. Those weren’t supposed to be taken seriously, they were just drunken ramblings of a toad sage, a poor innocent toad sage!

“Of course! How can I forget these important missions consisting of steeling panties of women? Some more missions like that, and I might as well change my profession from an assassin for higher, to a priest. Why the hell is he called a sage, anyway?” Naruto finished his explanation.

This time, the entire killing intent of Tsunade was focused on him. ‘I will not be able to get out without external help.’ Jiraiya determines finally.

“A-ah Naruto? L-little help?” he tried to get some help from his apprentice.

Surely, he wouldn’t leave him?

The only thing he found on the place of that boy is the teddy frog, the same one he left on Ichiraku ramen after promising that he will pay for his meal.

‘Can’t they all take a joke?’ Jiraiya thinks to himself.

“Jiraiya!” Tsunade roared.

“Noooooo! I am too young to die!” a vale of scream can be heard throughout the village, telling everyone civilian and shinobi alike, that their leader is seriously angry.


	3. chapter 3

Chapter 3.  
A walk through the town.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After leaving Jiraiya to his fate, Naruto started to explore the streets of leaf village. He is currently observing what kind of changes did take place in his absence.

First one was quite natural. He looked at the Hokage monument, and saw that it has a new addition. His thoughts were after looking Tsunade’s head were: ‘Looks ugly. After all, they forgot to put her best parts there!’

The second thing was about his house. When he goes there to check somethings out, he found out that entire building does not exist anymore. When he talked around to get some information (By using transformation, of course.), some people told him that two years ago, the area was demolished for some development.

Of course, those same people also told him how they practically danced on the rubble of that building once it was destroyed.

‘Wow. What a way to repay someone. I don’t know whether Tsunade ever received the report of this or not, but I think it was the doing of some administrative Chunin bastard.’

After walking some more, lost on ideas about what should he do now, he never thought of becoming homeless, let alone getting his apartment being destroyed.

It also did not help that in that very apartment, he created various sinister plots, which are not to be discussed so openly.

‘Well, that is what you get for trusting the people.’ He thinks to himself jadedly, expecting such a behavior from the people of Leaf.

The third discovery was really strange. After looking around some more, he found a hut. A really small hut.

‘Maybe I should kick out which ever poor soul is living there?’ getting ready to kick the door open, all the while grinning wildly from the glee being finally having a home, he suddenly stopped right on his track.

Because he saw a strange banner hanging at the door of the hut. “Hot blooded dojo!” it read.

Suddenly, he was remembering some strange memories, of how there was once same dojo was opened; those memories still gave him nightmares. Still against his judgement, he walks closer to the hut, with much more caution, his grin absent from his face.

Then his ears heard much more strange sounds, like punches and kicks being practiced. That wasn’t strange by itself, it is a military village. People are going to practice combat. The problem was that person was screaming about “Flames of youth!”

Suddenly, his brain started to scream, ‘Abort! Abort!’

In that exact moment, Naruto decided that he should listen to his brain and get out of there as soon as possible.

* * *

(Hokage’s office, with Tsunade and Jiraiya.)

After calming down from her rage, Tsunade realized that Naruto have been able to get away without answering some important questions. So she did next best thing, she told an ANBU to find him, and tell him he will have to come back here in her office.

“Damn it Jiraiya, because of you, he was able to get away.” Tsunade blamed the nearest person.

“Me? You are the one who lost your temper, remember?”

Before the argument can be continued further, the arrival of Kakashi put an end to it.

“Yo!” he gives exactly the same greeting as Naruto, causing Deja vu for Tsunade and Jiraiya.

“Kakashi! When did you arrive here?” Tsunade questioned.

“The time when someone lost their temper.” He says in his usual lazy tone, causing Sannins faces to twitch.

Then he notices Jiraiya, “Lord Jiraiya, I most humbly wait for your next entry.” He says that like a devout.

“Do not worry my child; soon your patients will be rewarded.” Jiraiya said, like a cult lord.

“Will you two stop that! And focus on more important matters.” Tsunade lost her patience with both of them.

“If you are here lord Jiraiya, then that means Naruto is also back. Where is he?” Kakashi asks.

With that reminder, Tsunade and Jiraiya both exchange looks and decided to tell him about the situation. After learning what exactly happened, Kakashi has this to say. “That is strange, even for him.”

Shortly after this, the ANBU who was sent to find Naruto by Tsunade arrives.

“My lady, Naruto Uzomaki will be here shortly.” He informed her.

After Tsunade dismissed the ANBU, Naruto arrives in three or so minutes.

Jiraiya was angry with him. “You brat! What kind of apprentice are you? Leaving your esteemed master like that?”

“Well, you should have known that I will take my revenge sooner or later.” He observes the new person in the office, “Hello there Kakashi sensei.”

“Hello Naruto,” Kakashi greeted him back, with his trademark eye smile.

“Due to my imbecile of a teamate,” Tsunade was interrupted by annoyed Jiraiya again,

“Hay!”

“I forgot to ask you some questions.” She finished.

“And they are?” once again, the teen assumed the posture and mannerisms of Kakashi.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was observing this, and regretting a lot of the decisions of the past. ‘Maybe I should have taken him as my personal student…’

“Well, first of all, I like to know where you have traveled to.” Tsunade began the questioning.

“And what have you learned.” Jiraiya added arrogantly.

“Well, I traveled a lot,” Tsunade leans forward in interest, “Several different places,” he continued. “And, learned a lot.” He finished.

In the corner, leaning against a wall, was Kakashi the proud Jonin Sensei.

“This doesn’t tell us anything.” Kakashi remarked.

“Learned from you, sensei.” He said that proudly.

Then Tsunade has a great idea. She made a stoic face, and asked him. “But if you don’t tell me what are your skills, then how can I promote you?” she should have done this earlier, she thought. She was proud of herself at this moment. For someone who wanted to become Hokage, he will surely take that bate?

“Nope, still not telling.” He wasn’t budging.

‘Bastard!’ Tsunade thought. ‘But, I will at least no one thing today.’

“Then tell me, how did you escaped from Jiraiya?” she asked him, with a smirk.

“You see, there is a story behind It.” with that, he began to recount the events after just weeks of departing for the training from leaf village.

* * *

(Flashback.)

Naruto and Jiraiya were in this forest for days now, since there are no females in the forest, Jiraiya couldn’t release his perverted nature. It was eating him from inside. ‘Damn it…. why did I take this brat to training? There are a lot of research waiting to happened, kukuku!’ he giggled even inside his own mind.

Jiraiya was hoping that they will reach the next town before the night time, but sadly his expectations didn’t prove to be right.

“Pervy sage, could, could we stop now?” asked the tired Naruto.

“Hurry up brat!” he even forgot that he was with a child, a ninja, but still a child.

After some more traveling.

“Damn it brat, why did you have to trip up like that?” Naruto couldn’t answer him, on the account of running out of breath.

“Okay, Okay, I will prepare the camp; you go and collect the wood.” He turned around to unpack the tent.

“Whatever you say, lord Jiraiya. But first,” Naruto was saying, with a scheming gleam in his eyes.

Jiraiya had a bad feeling about this. ‘Lord Jiraiya? He never calls me that.’

When he turned around again to see what was wrong, he was kicked right in the place where no man would like to be kicked. When he bent over in pain, Naruto put him in a headlock, then forced him to fall towards the ground head first, executing DDT!.

‘I should be able to get out of this,’ he thought. But when the replacement didn’t work, ‘Why? What happened.’ These were his last thought, then blackness took over.

* * *

(End flashback.)

“Haaaaahahahaha! Can’t believe that. Your first clue should have been him calling you with respect,” Tsunade laughed and mocked him.

“Yeah, laugh it up, I would like to see how you would do in that situation.” Jiraiya said.

“But in all seriousness, if you won’t tell me your skills yourself, then I have to take a test. Kakashi, in one hour, you will test both him and Sakura in the training ground twenty three.” Tsunade announced.

“And Kakashi? Don’t be late, otherwise your oh-so-favorite collection of books may have a sudden case of getting caught in fire…” with that ominous statement, she dismissed everyone.

Jiraiya and Kakashi were too horrified to think anything at that moment.

With that out of the way, Naruto had entire hour for coming up with a solution about his current homelessness.

‘Maybe ask my friends? Surely, they will help me?’ he thought for a moment. ‘Hahahaha! What a ridiculous thought. I wouldn’t trust them.’ Then he saw some beautiful girls walking down the street, ‘Another idea. Seduce a girl, and crash at her place. Excellent!’ but before he could pursue this line of thinking any further, he was struck with a feeling of horror, as if some person has already taken offence from this and the said person would make him suffer horribly for that.

‘New plan.’ He thought with a shiver, ‘I’ll go and ask her.’

With all of that out of the way, he started to approach training ground twenty-three.

When he arrived there, he was completely alone. just like he was expecting. 

Which just suited the blond fine, since it leaves him a lot of time to scheme for the future, and brood.

‘Please don’t tell me I am turning into Sasuke, I really need a companion. This level of loneliness is not healthy.’

Hearing some footsteps approaching, Naruto knew who it was going to be long before her pink hare came into his line of sight.

‘And speaking of Sasuke…’

Sakura Haruno was in really good mood today. It is quite simple why that is. First, she herds good news of her teammate Naruto returning after three years of training. It has to be good training, considering he was with a Sannin for past three years, right?

‘I hope that moron has learned something. After all, he was training with a Sannin for three years,’ Despite having respect for her teammate, she still doesn’t hold his skills in high regards.

The second good thing is that she has been assigned a test by her teacher of these past three years, now she has the chance to show how much she has improved.

‘Finally! My time to shine.’ She thought.

Little did she knew that she was about to be toyed with for the petty amusement of someone......

Noticing her footsteps getting closer, Naruto summoned a cup of tea from the storage dimension, and shifted to sit in a lotus position, giving the appearance of a calm and relaxed monk.

Sakura saw a person on the training ground. She realizes who that person is, but she could not believe her eyes. When she finally entered the ground, she gets a full look. If it wasn’t for his blond hair, and whisker marks, she never would have recognized him.

‘Is, is he really Naruto? Well, master said that he has become quite different. But this is too much.’ She still cannot believe her eyes. That calmly sitting person, who is appearing to be relaxed and meditating is Naruto Uzomaki. Who was used to be loud and boisterous, who was filled with unlimited and unending energy, is now sitting in front of her like some sort of monk.

After collecting her thoughts, she decided to approach him, and finally talk to him after three years. She also has to say, his new clothes are much nicer compare to his orange ones.

“–Naruto?” she silently cursed her stutter.

He opened his eyes. “Who?” then he pretended to appear like he has just realized that someone was talking to him. He then acts as if he is taking a look and appearance of that person to remember them. “S-Sakura?” he finally recognized.

“Exactly. Don’t tell me you forgot me?”

‘I can’t, even if I want to.’ He thought. But he said outside, “Well, three years is a long time, especially when I was doing such a hard training that I don’t even realize when I fell unconscious.” He explained.

She winced. Compare to what he just described, her training would appear quite relaxed. But she would be damned before she would let him feel that he is the only one who was putting himself to a grinder in past three years.

“Well, you are not the only one who was doing hard training. Speaking of improving, you are quite changed.” While she did worded it as a statement, she implied that she wants answers, preferably now.

‘That is what I was waiting for.’ He thought in victory. “Ha! I can’t believe that you fell for that.” throwing the empty cup of tea aside, he stretched his legs from lotus position. And gave her a grin, which says, ‘Great job, you just have been made fun of.’

That, naturally angered Sakura. But since it doesn’t appear that he is going to mock her, she decided not to punch him.

She decided to ask about his changed clothes. “So, finally realized that how ugly that jump suit was?”

“Yeah, these clothes are the perks of being outside of the village.” He replied.

Sakura didn’t get it, so she decided to ask some more questions. “Care to explain?”

“Is it me? Or are you slow today.” He mocked her, which angered Sakura again. “But, you see, those were the clothes I was allowed to buy inside this village. Now, I like to explain more, but Kakashi is here.”

He points upward, where in the leaves Kakashi was hiding. He decided to give his usual greeting. “Yo!” with complete eye smile that he perfected.

But sadly, Naruto did not cared at that moment about any of that. Because he was looking around as if he has lost something. Kakashi decided to ask him exactly about that.

“Lost something, Naruto?”

“Ah, did you say something, Kakashi sensei?” Naruto said distractedly.

Kakashi paled under his mask. ‘What? Do I look like Gai or something?’ he was really grateful for his mask at that moment.

Don’t get him wrong, he was proud of his student for adapting the right and only way of living. But he would really prefer if his student did not use the same techniques on him.

“A-ahem. Would you like to tell why you are so distracted, Naruto?” Kakashi composed himself, and asked.

“I am trying to find a Hell’s gate. It should appear any moment now,” Naruto said.

“Why are you waiting for that?” Sakura questioned, while filing the ‘Hell’s Gate’ for later.

“Because he is on time!” Naruto just couldn’t process that thought.

“Come to think of it,” even Sakura realized it.

Kakashi, being not wanting to lose respect in front of his cute students, decided to start the test. “Enough. Let’s begin the test.” Kakashi directed the attention to himself, as it should be.

Then, he started to explain the rules of the test. “Same as your genin test, I have bels. But this time, you have to get both of them for yourselves.”

“Now remember, come at me with intent to kill.” Kakashi winced.

He hated to repeat himself, but considering the shortage of time, that was the best he could come up with.

“Are you sure, Sensei?” Naruto asked.

“Yes.” Kakashi said with his eye smile, “Why such hesitation, Naruto?”

“Oh nothing.” Naruto said in the exact copy of Kakashi’s tone, “It’s just, when I attack, I terrify even myself.”

Right then, Naruto got covered with a threatening aura. Of course, Kakashi being a Jonin, was more than used to this. Besides, if Naruto was confident in showing his skills against him, then he has already accomplished his task, since this is the purpose of this test.

Though why include Sakura, that he has no idea of. But you do not question the boss, since the mind of the boss works in a strange and mysterious ways.

* * *

(With Tsunade and Jiraiya.)

Both of the Sannin were observing the students to be tested, that suddenly, Tsunade developed a twitch in her left eye.

Jiraiya, as a precaution, made some distance from her.

* * *

(Back to the field.)

That statement told Sakura, that the changes in clothes are not the only changes her teammate has gone through. She would have chided him in the past for talking with their Sensei like that, but considering his apparently different personality from what she remembered, as well as the look of excitement in Kakashi’s body language, she kept her objections to herself. 

“I’ll be the judge of that. now, begin!” Kakashi ordered, and disappears in to the forests of the training ground.

Sakura tries to sense him, but she wasn’t trained as a sensor. So she could not pinpoint his location. Then Naruto decided if they want to see his skills, they will see his skills. But not so easily.

“Sakura,” Naruto called her, no longer sitting against training posts, but still leaning on them.

She turned to him. “What?” can’t he see she was concentrating?

“We both don’t have any sensor abilities. Better try to judge his location from logic.” Naruto explained.

‘Right. He is not either my left, or right. Most certainly not above. So with that sense, below!’ she then decided to show that she had learned her master’s super strength as well, by punching and breaking the ground.

Kakashi was lying between the rocks, scared. ‘Dammit. that took her danger level up more than I thought.’

“I found you sensei.” Sakura smiles.

“Finding me is just one part of the test.” He pointed towards the bels. “You have to take one of these from me.”

“Yes!” she takes a fighting stance.

Naruto was still observing and leaning against the training posts, Content to just see. ‘That strength has definitely has its uses.’

Then a Tijutsu battle started between Kakashi and Sakura. Kakashi has to be really careful, because just one punch will be enough to end him.

* * *

(With the observers.)

“You have trained her well,” Jiraiya complimented, while watching the Jonin be on defensive.

Tsunade’s heart was filled with pride. “Of course! Have you any doubts?”

“No. but since telling her something, Naruto hasn’t done anything.”

“Yeah, seems too disinterested. What could be the cause of that?” Tsunade wonders.

“Well, there could be two of them.” Jiraiya said. “First of them that he just doesn’t care.”

Tsunade sweat drops. “Really, what is the other reason?” she asks sarcastically.

“Other reason is that he is hiding something. But what?”

* * *

(Back to the battle of limbs…)

Meanwhile on the training ground, Naruto was thinking, ‘Her strength is definitely great, but her fighting style is not. She is relying on her strength too much. If she continues like that, this won’t last long.’

True to this prediction, Sakura throws a sloppy punch, which gave Kakashi the chance to retaliate. He grabbed her already extended wrist, and with her own momentum sends her flying.

Kakashi was huffing. Fighting with Sakura took a lot out of him. But that only happened because he is not used to fighting with Tijutsu as much as other Jonin. And her super strength makes it much harder. But if he would have any chances to use ninjutsu, it wouldn’t have taken that much effort.

‘Finally!’ pushing from the training post, Naruto cracked his back lazily.

‘One more to go.’ Kakashi thought.

Naruto started to make hand seals at a fast pace. This made Kakashi concerned.

‘With the amount of chakra he is building, the technique is going to be dangerous.’ To avoid the said technique, Kakashi exposed his sharingan, and closed his other eye to focus on that left eye alone.

‘Yes, observe me with your Sharingan.’ With that, Naruto released a bright flash of chakra.

That chakra flash blinded Kakashi, especially when he was looking towards it with his sharingan. “Aaaarrrg!” ‘What exactly he did?’ he can’t believe it. One of his greatest aces has been disabled so easily.

Meanwhile, Naruto was waiting for him to turn around. And when he did that, he was surprised again.

“Goodnight, sensei!” he kicked him in the midsection, forcing him to bend over. Then, he puts him in a headlock, and connects his head with the ground executing DDT!

* * *

(With the former victim, and his female companion.)

As Kakashi’s head impacted with the ground, Jiraiya winced in sympathy.

“This is that same move isn’t it?” Tsunade questioned Jiraiya.

“Exactly.” He replied shortly. He was too busy to find a counter to say more than that.

* * *

(Back to the students.)

Sakura was still dazed from her flight earlier, so she didn’t have any idea that the test was over until the bel thrown by Naruto didn’t hit her head. “Oh!” she caught the object in her hand. “T-this is,”

“Yep, congrats Sakura, we passed the test.” Naruto said with a smile.

“Correct.” A voice exclaimed.

Then Tsunade and Jiraiya walked out of their hiding spot.

“Good job, both of you.” The Hokage congratulated.

“I am most curious to know the techniques you used Naruto.” Jiraiya asked.

“Why? Because one of them hit you?” Naruto said sarcastically.

“Answer the question damn it!” Jiraiya’s face flushed with the humiliation of that day.

“Fine. The first one is simply called chakra flash, which I created to use on Dejutsu users.” He said.

“Likely to be used on who Akatsuki would send after you. And the other one?” he questioned further.

“The other one is called DDT; it is designed for the people who are addicted to replacement. That is all I am going to say.” He refused to say anymore.

“Okay then. From now on, the team Kakashi will be an active sell, consisting you and Sakura, led by Jonin Kakashi.” Tsunade announced the team.

Naruto takes a look back at knocked out Kakashi, “Can we change the name?” he asked.

“Why?” Tsunade asked him back.

Then he thought of better. “Never mind.”

“Milady, what about sensei?” Sakura was concerned.

“Don’t worry. From the looks of it, he only has a small concussion. He will be OK with a goodnights sleep.” Then she started to go back to her office.

“Take him to hospital Jiraiya.” Tsunade said. after all, concussions are not to be ignored, even if they are small.

“Fine. Naruto, will you come here for a moment?” the toad sage beckoned.

“Okay, what?” he walked towards Jiraiya.

“Look, I want to ask, was my training was not good enough for you?” Jiraiya asked heavily.

“The problem is not your training; the problem is your attitude.” He said that, and promptly walked away.

Jiraiya… could not think of any response. After all, try as he might to deny it, the Jinchuriki was correct.

As Naruto and Jiraiya were having their conversation, Sakura’s mind was on an entirely different track. 

‘Wow, never thought that Naruto will come out of his training so changed.’ Then she realized something. ‘He, he is just behaving like him, stop thinking like that! He is not Sasuke, he is Naruto. He will never become that cold,… right?’ she wasn’t that sure herself.

‘Maybe I should ask him, what will he say?’ she hesitates for a moment, then seeing that Jiraiya and Naruto were done talking, decides to ask him.

“Naruto, would you like to come with me to eat something? You know, in celebration of your return, my treat.” She added that last one as an afterthought.

“No.” he flatly refused.

“W-what?” Sakura was taken aback with this sudden coldness.

“You are annoying.”

With those words, her entire world shattered with the sound of glass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to the fact that I have been swamped with things, I didn't uploaded the chapters as fast as I can. But from now on, I'll be uploading two chapters a week, until we're caught up with the already published chapters on FFN.


	4. chapter 4

Chapter 4.  
Finding a new home.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After getting free from the so called test of skill by Tsunade, Naruto was bored.

‘Seriously. If it weren’t for my plans to get to the Uchiha, I would have never returned here.’ Naruto grumbled in his head, and shuttered.

‘Let’s just hope that doesn’t turn me in to the Orochimaru 2.0.’

But, what could he do? His time passing hobby in these kinds of situations is just spending the day relaxing. Or sleeping. Preferably one after another.

But he couldn’t do that, because he lost his home. The same problem keeps its ugly head rearing over and over again.

Of course, he already has the solution of the problem, it’s just he is rather unwilling to approach the person who could help him in this condition. Not because he was afraid or anything, Naruto uzomaki is not afraid of anyone or anything in the world, but he was just not willing to face the insanity for keeping out of contact for so long.

But in the middle of his walking and contemplation, he saw a banner for a restaurant, most likely newly opened. Then he remembers between today’s tasks, he forgot his lunch. So he decided to correct that misconduct against his stomach then and there.

After entering into this restaurant, which is called by a strange name of the “Eagle’s Food.” He was greeted by a guy.

“Hello sir, what can I get you for today?”

A guy, who looked like Kabuto.

“I like to have lunch at your place.” Naruto said, while having strange sense of déjà vu.

“Then follow me.” the Kabuto look alike got up and began escorting Naruto.

‘A guy, who looks like Kabuto, even sounds like Kabuto. What in the world is going on?’ he didn’t let his inner thoughts show up on his face.

Then, he saw something. Asuma, Gai along with Lee, and Kuranai were sitting together having lunch.

Then when his eyes met Kuranai’s, he decided to sit with them.

“Thank you mister, but I think I found the place to sit.” He told that Kabuto look alike.

“Alright, I’ll be there to take your order shortly.” He said, and left.

Naruto took a look of Kuranai, and thought to himself, ‘If it weren’t for her wrath, I might have tried my seduction techniques on her. Oh well…’

“Can I sit here?” he asked.

All the people present on the table turned to him, wondering why this stranger would like to sit with them? While it is true that half of the population of the Leaf is the part of the military force, it still does not mean that they can recognize everyone, or be friends with everyone.

While Naruto did think that sooner or later, one of the Jonin would connect his facial features, since he does have rather striking whisker marks on his face and gold blond hair, and no matter how much he changed his appearance, or general attitude, they were sure to recognize him.

Much to his surprise though, Lee managed to recognize him long before any of the Jonin.

“Naruto! How great of you to join us this youthful day!” he said in his usual cheerful tone.

“Thanks, Lee. But, you still did not answer me.”

“Of course you can.” Asuma invited.

Naruto, rather than sit with the Jonin, settled himself right next to Lee. He might dislike him a lot, for mainly having a teacher who was a father all but in name, or graduating from the academy without the clone bullshit put on him, but despite all of that, Naruto was most familiar with Lee, having completed various missions with him.

“So, Naruto, I didn’t know that you returned?” Asuma opened the conversation.

“Well, it has been just few hours, and I’ve just got done with the test assigned by the Hokage, so not many people know it yet.”

“I see. So, what was the test? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“Not much different from the teamwork test assigned to Genin. I just have to beat Kakashi along with Sakura.”

While the reaction of Kuranai and Asuma was along the lines of “Yeah great.” the reaction of Gai and Lee was more energetic. Though the comments about his flames of youth being refined over the last few years by hard training, were really not needed. Still, Naruto could not stop himself from preening a little (Dislike of Lee aside,) for giving him such a wonderful reaction.

After this conversation, the waiter came to their table to take the order of Naruto. once that was done, the conversation resumed.

Everyone was asking him about his training trip, but he didn’t say anything to other two, said minimum things to Gai, and answered almost all the questions of Lee.

Just as he was done with his lunch, Gai said something. By the tone he was concerned greatly.

“I understand that my rival has a tendency to act hip and cool, but it is getting late even for him.”

“Wait, you have a challenge today?” Naruto asked. By this point, all the rookie teams were familiar with Kakashi’s and Gai’s rivalry.

“Yes, can you believe it has been six hundred-six hundred already?” Gai announced proudly.

‘He is seriously insane.’ Naruto thought flatly.

“Well, if Kakashi is not coming, then I think we have to postpone it.” Asuma said in disappointment. And he had put a lot of money on that as well!

Gai and Kakashi’s rivalry is so famous in the ninja community, that every shinobi had betted on one of them at one point or another in the past.

“Sorry, you see Kakashi sensei had a training accident.” He forgot to mention that he himself was that accident.

“What?” Gai screamed? And struggled to stand up.

“Yeah, remember that test I mentioned earlier? He actually underestimated us, and got knocked out in the process.” Naruto said with a smirk, “You don’t want to get punched by Sakura, trust me. he’ll be okay though, after a good night’s sleep, the Hokage said so herself.”

That calmed gai. “But I was looking forward to It.” he was still disappointed.

Naruto at this moment, was taken by a crazy idea. But all of his instincts were telling him, that he should ignore it, and not follow up on that idea.

“Say what Gai sensei,” Naruto began to suggest. “Since Kakashi sensei will not appear, and considering that I am his student, I have a duty to uphold his honor.”

“Naruto! You.” Gai couldn’t finish his heartfelt appreciation speech.

“And, I myself cannot fight you, since we will be mismatched. So how about Lee and I spar in a Tijutsu?” he turned to Lee, who was sitting next to him. “What do you say?” he asked him.

“That will be the most youthful spar, Naruto!” Lee proclaimed.

“Thank you Naruto! I am most happy that Kakashi’s student did not inherit his hip attitude.” Gai exclaimed.

“Are you sure, kid? You have just arrived, and completed a test assigned by the Hokage. I don’t think you should strain yourself so much.” Asuma said in concern.

“You can blame Jiraiya for that,” receiving looks for that strange statement, Naruto elaborated. “You see I have quite gotten used to getting so tired by my training that I can’t move before sleep. And I am having trouble adapting to relaxing atmosphere.”

Naruto observed the reaction of all the Jonin in amusement. Gai is unfazed, after all he himself is known for his brutal training regime. But other two sported quite a disapproving looks on their faces, being not very big fans of harsh training. Personally, Naruto thought that they really did coddled their Genin teams, since despite not meeting them for three years, he could tell that they were same in personality, no growth at all.

“I am sure that spar would help me adjust faster, by giving me some familiarity in the village as the same atmosphere of my training.”

After that, the Jonin agreed, while Naruto preened inwardly for his amazing bullshit skills.

* * *

(At a training ground clearing.)

Since it was already decided that it is going to be a Tijutsu match, they needed a proper field for that. The field should have enough clear area for both fighters to move freely, while allowing the spectators to observe.

Taking his Strong Fist stance, Lee said, “Good luck, Naruto!” after all, Gai Sensei always said to be polite even with your enemies, while Naruto was a fellow comrade.

“Thanks, good luck to you as well, Lee.”

‘I do need the luck. If I did slip up, and ended up killing you, I’ll need it to get away, after all.’ Were the thoughts of Naruto.

Naruto, of course did not take any fighting stance. In his experience, that is just giving away the information to your opponent before the fight even starts. Instead, he rather prefers to wait for his opponent to make a move, and then react accordingly, with a ruthless result. Though he would need to contain the ruthlessness here.

(Soundtrack: contra hardcore, something wonderful.)

A breeze ruffled both of their clothes, and they suddenly leaped towards each other.

Throwing the first blow of this impromptu match with the explosive power of the Strong Fist, Lee was surprised how Naruto managed to keep up with him, either redirecting his strikes, dodging or blocking them, or trying to return the attacks. he was quite successful in defense, but in the attack, he seems to be having trouble.

Lee observed the power of the blows after blocking them, noting that even if Naruto is not Tijutsu focused like him; his blows were strong and have to be taken seriously.

After exchanging some blows, they made some space between themselves. This time, Lee decided to go with a sweep. This was countered by Naruto side stepping and retaliating with a roundhouse kick of his own, which was blocked by Lee. As this was going on, a conversation was also taking place among the Jonin.

* * *

(With Jonin.)

“This has to be the strangest fighting style I have seen so far.” Gai noted.

That made Asuma curious. since gai is the Tijutsu expert, he had more or less scene all kinds of Tijutsu techniques and styles. so, it is very rare for him to be surprised by a style which he has never seen before.

“Still, Lee is better than him. No matter what new Tijutsu he had learned, Naruto will not beat him.” Asuma judged, he thinks that you just cannot rely on your style alone to carry you through the battle.

Lee has greater experience in close quarters combat; thus, no matter what Naruto tries, Lee would win.

Gai countered Asuma’s claims with the question of his own,  
“But why isn’t he retaliating? I know some back and forth was going to happened, but this has been going on for far longer than it should.”

* * *

(Back to the fight.)

By this point, Lee have realized that he will have to do something else to make Naruto serious, since they both were exchanging some glancing blows so far. So after their latest exchange of punches and kicks, Lee made some space between them, and look towards Gai.

Gai gave a nod, and he started to remove weights attached to his legs and arms. When they all impacted with the ground together, they shook the entire field.

Realizing what is going to happen next, Naruto changed his posture from a relaxed one from his arms on his side, to an alert one, with both hands situated at chest level. He still remembers how fast Lee was after removing his weights in the Chunin exams, and he most likely going to be much faster now. That is why he didn’t want to take any chances.

‘It is a good thing that I learn the specific way to defeat these speedy fighters, there are a lot of them I will have to deal with in the future.’

Proving Naruto right, Lee came after him with speed for most of the shinobi hard to track, but his fighting style proved useful, and he was able to avoid and react and return his blows. Though it still was not easy.

* * *

(With Jonin.)

Thankfully, the people who were watching this spar were not any normal shinobi, so they can still see the fight… barely. This doesn’t prove a problem for Gai; after all, fighting at these speeds was the daily exercise for him and his student.

‘Though I never thought that Naruto himself will improve that much, he probably trained himself just as hard, and his flames of youth are burning harder!’

Meanwhile Asuma was willing to admit within the privacy of his head that this level of Tijutsu was giving him a complex, since it was coming from teens who are not even Jonin, or fought in a war.

But Kuranai is not bothered much. Close combat has never been her strong suit anyway, even though she does get some flak for neglecting those skills from other Jonin.

Of course, Gai was very much oblivious to the thoughts of his fellow Jonin, he was more interested within the brawl between the student of a Sannin and his own apprentice.

* * *

(Back to the fight… again.)

Lee was surprised that even after removing his weights, Naruto was managing to keep up with him. While Naruto decided to take advantage of something which he has over Lee, his stamina. He could dodge and run around Lee all day, though it would be a very exhausting day.

‘What would I not give for this turning into a proper battle, where I could use Ninjutsu? He wouldn’t have stood a chance.’

But of course, this did not remain the same way for too long.

Lee was very impressed with the progress of Naruto. back when he came to fight with Sasuke right before the Chunin exams, Naruto rushed him head long and was promptly got knocked out. But here he was, now managing to keep up with him.

Lee kept close to Naruto, not wanting to give him enough space to react or make the moves of his own. But Naruto still did manage to get some space between them, by first punching Lee in the gut, and then connecting with a low kick which would have unbalanced him, if it connected properly. This kick did buy him the space which he needed to keep Lee away from constantly breathing down his neck, since reacting to speed in such a close distance was a hard thing to do.

Lee, however was not one of those people who get deterred so easily. He tried to close in once more, but again, Naruto lashed out, punched him in the jaw, and sent him skidding back.

By this point, enough amount of time has passed for both of them to notice that the current way of battle will not get them any decisive victory.

Knowing that his mentor is watching, Lee cannot afford to lose. So he decided to do something, which no shinobi would do in a friendly spar, he decided to use his most deadly technique, for both him and his opponent.

“It is nice to see that you have learned great Tijutsu, for fighting with me for so long has definitely shown your progress. Clearly, Jiraiya has trained you well.” Lee said, while breathing heavily.

Inwardly, Naruto was amused that everyone didn’t know about his stunt, but he replied all the same. “Of course, Gai himself have also trained you well, despite his eccentrics.” The last part was sarcastic, but the respect was genuine.

“It is for that same reason that I have to use my most prized technique learned by Gai sensei himself. Prepare yourself, Naruto!” then Lee took the pose for opening the gates.

(Soundtrack: contra hardcore, GTR attack.)

‘Dammit! Why is he so riled up? it is just a spar, right? Why be so… intense?’ Naruto looked at Gai, in a hope that perhaps he would stop this madness from continuing. But instead of finding any help there, the only thing which Naruto saw was the excitement for the next round.

Then, Lee started to open his gate one by one, “Gate of opening, open!”

‘Let’s see, what would he use?’ thoughts were flying around his head, brain working at a fast pace knowing once Lee is done with his gates, he won’t have enough time to think.

“Gate of healing, open!”

‘Front Lotus? No. if he wanted to use that, he would have done so already. Then, reverse lotus?... double fuck!’ he was thinking franticly now. ‘Quick! What he would not expect, well to start with he will be coming at me with full speed. Then, let’s use that.’ A devilish grin stretched on his face. ‘Prepare to suffer for scaring me like that, you cloned up bushy eyebrows disaster!’

“Gate of life, open!” with the last gate opened, Lee’s skin turned red, and he prepared to rush for his opponent.

* * *

(Meanwhile, with the audience.)

While Naruto may have not the chance to appeal to Gai for stopping Lee from taking this spar to such extremes, Kuranai and Asuma did have a chance.

“Gai, it was just supposed to be a light spar, nothing more.” Kuranai was saying.

“Don’t worry, both of these fighters have their flames of youth in control!”

“Seriously Gai, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Don’t worry my smoking youthful friend,” Asuma twitched while Kuranai tried to hide her snickers, “I am sure everything will turn out fine!”

though they were not successful at all.

* * *

(With the fighters.)

As Lee started to rush him, Naruto winds up his body, clenched his fist, and waited for the right moment.

“Hidden Lotus!” Lee announced the name of his technique at the top of his lungs.

‘Not now, not now, not now, there!’ with that, he released his coiled up body like a spring, flanking Lee from his left side. Then, he delivered a punch, with lightning surrounding the fist. The punch electrocuted Lee’s body, and sent him flying at the same time.

* * *

(With the crowd.)

“W-w-what?” both of the Jonin were shocked, but Kuranai was the one who voiced it.

Gai was like a statue, but then he burst out about how great the match was, and how youthful the finish was.

“But, there was lightning on his hands.” Asuma stopped gai from yelling.

“Well, some of the Tijutsu techniques are so powerful that they produce elements by themselves.” Gai explained.

‘That is strange, Jiraiya is not exactly known for his Tijutsu skills…’ Asuma thought.

Walking towards the Jonin, Naruto remarked, “Ah, that was a wonderful workout. Admittedly, the last few moments could have gone better though.”

“Well, rarely Shinobi spars take a turn for such extremes.” Kuranai said, while Asuma nodded next to her.

Looking at Gai, Naruto asked, “I apologize—” Naruto began to say, but was interrupted in the middle.

“No need, Naruto. after all, what are the few training spars between comrades?”

‘That… was not a spar, by any stretch of the imagination.’ The other two Jonin fumed.

“Oh.” Gai smiled at Naruto’s relieved face, “Would you do me a favor though?”

“What?”

“Please don’t tell anyone that I knocked him out,” getting strange looks for that, Naruto explained himself. “You see, my reputation is—”

“No need to say anything more, kid. We’ll take care of that.”

“Oh, thanks.” Giving them a bow with a flourish, Naruto said, “By your leave then.” Leaving three Jonin behind himself.

“I really can’t believe how much he has changed. Not just in skills, but personality and manners too.” Kuranai marveled.

“True. but how? That is the question.” Asuma said, while thinking out loud, “Specially considering who trained him…”

* * *

(With Naruto.)

The conversation behind Naruto tapers off, as he gains more and more distance until all the Jonin, and one knocked out Chunin were left behind. Stretching his neck, he sighed at the satisfying crack.

Acting so much in front of these people, maintaining so many expressions, (Whether be on his face or body language,) can get exhausting.

‘But I do know that the day simply is not over yet.’ With a sigh, Naruto moves towards another part of the village, where he already has another situation waiting for him.

Arriving at the average looking house located within a small area which by looks to be reserved for a small clan, Naruto braced himself and knocked.

For a moment, there was silence, until Naruto heard some footsteps behind the door getting closer and closer, until the door finally opened.

In front of Naruto stood a girl with long brown hair, wearing a kimono of all things, (Though by looks, she does not seem to have any trouble in moving that,) glaring at him viciously.

Naruto observed the changes within the girl compared to the time he came to recruit her for his plans, though he did not find any. But then again, this girl is very good with illusions, he should not rely on his eyes.

“Hello Yakumo.”

With a frosty tone, she said, “Finally remembered me, hmm?”

“Well—”

“Spare me the excuses. I knew you were in contact with others somehow, yet left me out.”

Stiffening at the accusations, Naruto said, “Do you really want to talk about this in your doorstep?”

For a moment, Naruto thought that Yakumo did not listen to him and will continue to berate him. But soon enough, she did invite him inside with a huff, for which he was grateful. He did not want to answer any awkward questions if someone heard their conversation.

Of course, it was just a temporary relief, as soon as they were inside, the tirade began anew. At least this time, he was seated comfortably.

“And not only that, I was dropped from the Shinobi program entirely!” Naruto perked up as Yakumo took a deep breath, thinking she was finished.

Thankfully, he turned out to be correct. “Tell me, why do you think I was able to contact the ‘Others’?”

“Well how were they supposed to accomplish their tasks? Leaving them in the dark for so long is not your style.”

“True. but you seriously don’t know where I was in these past few years, let alone what happened to me.”

“Oh? Why don’t you tell me then?”

“Weeeellll…”

* * *

(Two hours later…)

“Seriously?”

“Yep. And I ended up hospitalized for a while. But still, he did agree, so,”

“Okay. why did you come here again? last I checked, you really did not like to be shown in the open with me.”

“Ah, why are you using such a tone as if I keep you in contempt or something? If that were the case, I wouldn’t have come here to ask for your help.”

“Help?” she said in surprise, as far as she understands Naruto, he likes to be self-dependent. For him to ask for help…

“Some wonderful people,” Naruto said in a derisive tone, “Decided that it would be a great idea to destroy the building where I live, all for the purpose of reconstruction, of course!” at the end, Naruto was snarling, making Yakumo worried as if he is about to go on a rampage anytime now.

“So, you need a place to live?”

“Yes.”

If it was anyone else, Yakumo would have heled that fact against that person as long as it brought amusement to her. But she decided not to do that with Naruto.

“What about the other clan members?” when Yakumo remained silent, Naruto asked, “If they are a problem then I’ll leave immediately. I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

“Oh them.” she handwaved the issue. “They don’t like the fact I exist, so they pretend that I don’t. if I am lucky enough, they might even come to check on me once a year.”

“Oh.”

“I am surprised that you did not suggested to make them disappear.”

“The problem is, the next stage of the plan is approaching fast. I only need to get to the Uchiha, stare within his activated Sharingan, and everything would just turn out fine after that.”

“What, end of story?”

“Yeah right,” He snorted. “You should know better by this point. I meant fine for the next stage.”

“Oh. And really? I never thought that you liked Uchiha that much.”

“Please don’t remind me. I don’t mind the fact that I really clawed my way up to this point, experiencing many humiliating things in the process. But that one thing, if it was not necessary, I’ll never do it.”

“Fine, fine, no more love jokes. You can stay here.”

“Thanks.”

“With a condition.”

“And that is?”

“There is this newly opened restaurant I want to go to eat, you’ll take me there.” She said with finality.

Yakumo is one of those very few people who can demand things from him, and he would oblige without killing them. For no one orders Naruto Uzomaki, no one.

* * *

(In the front of royal eagle.)

Arriving in the front of the restaurant after the sun was set with Yakumo, Naruto observed the sign of the restaurant proclaiming “Royal Eagle, only the best and most exquisite food.”

“Pretentious, aren’t they?”

Yakumo, who is in the disguise of a teenage girl who is not the resident of the Leaf, nodded. “Pretentious or not, I did hear good things about this one.” She said. “Come now, don’t make me wait.”

With that, Naruto started to walk towards the entrance of the restaurant, Yakumo in the lead. But the Jinchuriki was having a feeling that he has done this before, only with a different person entirely.

‘Whatever. Better not think about it too much.’ Banishing all such distracting thoughts, Naruto saw that they have arrived in the front of the reception.

“Hello sir, how may I help you today?”

Where the receptionist looked like Kabuto.

‘Another one?’

Looking around discretely as possible, Naruto tries to see whether Orochimaru is around somewhere or not, since it would not be the first time a rogue ninja has sneaked in to the Leaf.

“We need a table of two.” Yakumo said.

“Hm. did you made any special bookings?”

“No. this is our first time coming here.”

“Would that be a problem?” Naruto asked, in a mild tone.

“No problem at all sir. It is just a standard practice to ask that.”

“Great then.”

“Let me take you to an empty table.” With that, Kabuto of the restaurant world got up and started to escort them to a table.

Naruto noted to himself how nice the Kabuto-receptionist was being to him. There is no way that he does not know who he is. After all, his hare, and his whiskers are enough to clue anyone who he was.

After they were seated to the table, Yakumo decided to ask. “Alright. Spill, why were you looking like as if some really terrible person is about to pop from out of nowhere?”

“Because he looked like Kabuto!” Naruto burst out, “Not just looked like him, but he sounded like him as well!”

“O…kay? Who is this ‘Kabuto?’”

“Oh. I forgot you were lucky enough to avoid the clusterfuck of a Chunin exams hosted by Leaf three years ago.”

“What does that have to do with this ‘Kabuto?’”

“Everything. He is a spy and a medic, who works for Orochimaru.”

“Damn.”

“Not only that, he masqueraded as a Genin for who knew how long, before getting found out at the time of the invasion.”

“Well, I was still cooped up in the mountain side house, remember?”

“Yeah.” Naruto nodded. “But you see, right before I returned, both of those creepy duos caused me a lot of trouble.”

“I wonder why?”

“Who knows? That snake was rambling about getting lucky, and capturing me as a bargain for Akatsuki or something. I was too busy blowing up the bases and labs to notice that.”

“Too bad you didn’t find Uchiha then.”

“Tell me about it.”

Before Naruto could begin his rant about how Orochimaru was really should not be able to hide Sasuke from him, since both of them hate to be cooped up in one place for too long against their will, the waiter arrived to take their orders.

“So. What would you like to order this fine evening?” the waiter hissed in a familiar way.

While Naruto was having a breakdown of a sorts, do to seeing two people who looked the same as Orochimaru and Kabuto, two of the most annoying thorns in his sides, Yakumo orders their dinner.

As the waiter left, Naruto whispers to the girl next to him, “Maybe they are undercover, and are subtly mocking me. I’ll kill them!”

Putting one hand on his shoulders, Yakumo replied, “Nah, you are too paranoid. Besides, don’t you think that other Shinobi would have recognized them, and reported this to the Hokage by now?”

“I just don’t have the same trust within the security of this damn prison.”

“Always so dramatic.”

* * *

(Somewhere.)

“Kabuto?”

“Yes, lord Orochimaru?”

“What would you think if I told you to disguise yourself as a restaurant manager?”

Kabuto was too confused to answer.

* * *

(Back to the plot.)

After the dinner was over, Naruto and Yakumo returned back to Yakumo’s house, and no one realized that Yakumo who is still considered a danger by her clan escaped from her assigned house, nor they knew that she is currently hosting the Jinchuriki who is harboring alternative plans.

“So, do you think they deserve to put that sign at their entrance?” the illusionist asked.

“Yep, they sure do.”

“Thought so.”

Showing Naruto to his room, which caused him to comment about how nice her clan members being to her, keeping her contained within a decent house with at least more than one room, Yakumo began to go back to her room, already planning to sleep. But she turned around to say final few words.

“Now.” She said, “Go to sleep, and don’t make me wake up in the morning, otherwise whatever horrible things may happen to your psyche, you yourself will be responsible.” Saying those final words, Yakumo left Naruto to his own devices.

* * *

(Meanwhile, in the hidden sand village.)

One man and a puppet were flying towards their destination, the leader of the destroyed village left behind their wake slung over one of the birds of the man.

“Finally captured the one tails, hopefully, leader will reduce his grumpiness.” The blond man remarked.

“Whatever, hurry up. I hate waiting. And I hate even more to make wait others.” The puppet remarks.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just hurry, you know I hate waiting.” The other one mimicked him, which annoyed the second one.

* * *

(With Naruto, in Yakumo’s house.)

It was dead of the night, meaning other than the ANBU who were patrolling, no one was awake in the village. Then, the neckless that is around Naruto’s neck through which the Shinobi headband hangs from, and a ring which was ignored by everyone despite being in presents of Hokage, started to glow and heat up a little.

‘It is time.’ Naruto left the house silently.

Just as silently, he arrived in an unknown location.

“So, want to explain the reason for your lateness?” a silhouette, by the looks of it female, asked.

Naruto just smirks.

“You didn’t.”

“I did.” Well, whatever she thought, he clearly did not do it. but it is so fun to tease her.

“You, you!” ah, the indignant speechlessness, that sounds music to his ears.

“It doesn’t matter what he did.” Another silhouette said, looks to be a large man.

“Don’t steel my favorite, and already stolen catch phrases.”

“Fine, fine. But we have called you here for a reason.” The large silhouette said.

“And the reason is?”

“The Kazekage has been kidnapped.” The large figure delivered the news.

“Did he now?” Naruto said, not sure how to feel about it.

At one hand, Gaara is someone who Naruto likes to think a friend. On the other hand, he took all of his suggestion’s way so seriously, and became an honest (As much as a ninja could be honest,) and upright leader of his people.

He also knew that he will never side with him in his future plans.

“Yes.” The female said.

“Considering their alliance, leaf will most certainly mount a rescue effort.” The second one said.

“And they will send me.” Naruto said flatly.

“Why you? And how can you be so certain about it.”

“Simple, counsels over here see me as a weapon under their thumb, “he explained, “And Tsunade will agree, because I will be a concerned friend, planning to move the mountains to rescue my friend!” He finished, while striking a pose.

“Not exactly wrong, is it?” the large figure asked, while looking the short one with contempt since she was still busy snickering at Naruto’s pose.

“The best lies are the ones which have some truth mixed in them.”

“True. true.”

“Also, be prepared.”

“For what?” both of them asked.

“Just little bit of waiting, then our plan can go to the next stage.”

“Great!”

“Let us make the preparations accordingly.”

After saying that, both of the figures left. After a while, Naruto snuck back to Yakumo’s house, still as silent as before.


	5. chapter 5

Chapter 5.  
First mission, rescue the Kazekage.

(Eight in the morning, on the streets of Leaf village.)

Naruto is currently enjoying his late morning walk on his beloved village, who would choose him as its leader any time now… scratch that. I can’t lie to you such wonderful people!

Rather than enjoy his walk, he is just contemplating the future steps of his plans, (Whatever they may be,) all the while another teenaged girl who looked as same age as Naruto, bounced around him.

While it was clear from her behavior that she is not a Shinobi, since they often have this certain edge to them at least for civilians, she does not exude any such feeling. Thus, many people wondered how Naruto, (Many uncharitable names,) Uzomaki acquired such a beautiful girl?

‘Right! After that, I’ll take over the entire ruling party, and crush the protesters—what am I doing? I am not a politician.’ Breathing a large sigh, he continues to think in his head, ‘I just hope things will get on without any complications…’

While Naruto did not know this, a complication is just waiting for him at some distance.

* * *

(With team eight.)

Today’s morning is just as same as other mornings for team eight, meet with Kuranai, train some, get a mission.

Though, this day is different in a fashion that Kuranai has a mission of her own, so all three of the members of team eight are left on their own. This of course, is not very strange, after all, they all did receive a promotion of Chunin. Handling a C, or a short B rank mission is not exactly hard for them.

Of course, this normal day is about to take a strange turn for them, and it begins with meeting the Jinchuriki of the nine tails.

Of course, they did not recognize Naruto at first, since he has started to wear different clothes than they remember, as well as general personality changes.

“Shino, does that guy looks familiar to you?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because he smells familiar.”

“Hmm. Look on his face.”

“What?” Kiba did not get what is partner is talking about, until he got closer and looked at his face… “Ah. Whiskers. He is Naruto then; I don’t know any other person with that sort of facial feature.”

but one look of his face is enough to remind them who he is.

While the other two human team members were having this discussion, the third one was quiet.

There is a reason for this, you see. Which I am sure you know what that reason is, but this hansom narrator will explain all the same.

At first when Kiba talked about the smell of this guy, Hinata ignored this since it could be anyone they have teamed in the past.

But long before Shino pointed the face to Kiba, Hinata has already seen the hare of that person, the shade of blond hair which not even the Yamanaka have.

She knew only one person who have the same shade of blond hair, which means… (Hinata system has been short circuited. Please wait for the reboot.)

Once they got into the talking distance, Kiba greeted Naruto boisterously. “Hay man!”

Busy as he was within his rumination of future plans, Naruto aside from following this civilian girl, did not keep an eye on where he was going, or who was around him. As a result, he jolted from Kiba’s loud greeting. But still, he managed to recover quickly, and reply back.

“Hay.” Naruto droned.

The girl standing next to him slapped his arm, “That’s no way to receive a greeting.” She chided.

“Eh, Kiba is an old friend. I am sure he won’t mind too much.”

“Yeah, what is up with you?” said old friend asked, “You look… what’s the word? Oh yeah! Lethargic.”

“Oh, nothing much. You see, I thought that since I am back on the village, and since I don’t have a mission yet, I’ll get to sleep in. but she,” Naruto pointed to the girl, “Woke me up.”

“I wonder why she did that?” Kiba asked with a grin.

“Who knows? At least she made my morning… enjoyable. That is the biggest reason of my lethargy.” Naruto answered with a same grin.

“Ah, congrats man! Though, who is she? I have never seen her before.”

“She also doesn’t appear to be a Shinobi,” another voice came from the right of Kiba.

“Ah, Shino, right?” Naruto after trying to remember, asked.

“You did not forget me. that is surprising.” The bug user noted.

“What? Don’t tell me you want me to forget you?” Naruto looked at Shino strangely.

“No. you remembering me… is appreciated.”

“And to answer your question,” the girl spoke then, ignoring Naruto’s frantic signs behind which he was giving her behind his back, “I am Nami. And you also would be correct in assuming that I am not a Shinobi, since I actually am the daughter of a merchant from an entirely civilian city.”

“Ooooooooh. I never pegged you as someone so ambitious, Naruto. good for you.”

“Illogical. He does have the ambition to become a Hokage, thus it is not surprising.”

“Ah, you and you’re logic. You forget that becoming a Hokage and ‘That’ sort of success, are two entirely different things.”

While these two team members bickered with each other, perhaps it is time that this narrator should inform you that “Nami” is actually Yakumo in disguise, and she is enjoying the headaches she is giving Naruto currently.

Ignoring the arguing males, Naruto turned his attention to the non-human member of this team, Akamaru. “Oh man, you really have grown large, haven’t you? I bet you can mall anyone.” Hearing the praise, the dog gave a pleased woof.

“How could you?”

With that little voice, all the bickering stopped, the look of lethargy disappeared from Naruto’s face, now adorning more serious expression.

“Nami’s” amusement however, remained for everyone to see clearly.

“How could you do this to meeeee!” Hinata screamed.

Kiba never thought that he would be terrified of his sweet and shy teammate. But here he was, cowering in the wake of her scream of absolute rage.

It of course did not take Hinata for deducting what Kiba, that girl, and Naruto were insinuating. That angered her. Who was she? Some foolish daughter of a hopeless merchant, trying to steal the boy whom she has been after for so long?

Getting annoyed at his poor ears being subjected to such a screech in the morning no less, Naruto asked, “Who are you to question me?”

That silenced Hinata. But she did not remain like that for too long, “I, I loved you all this time, and you, you with this weak bitch—”

“And when did you declared your love for me? as far as I am concerned, you are nothing more than a girl who graduated from academy along with me. hell, I have better memories of Kiba from academy, than you.”

“You—”

“Frankly, I am not interested in you at all. Did you ever ask me? no you didn’t. I didn’t even know that you have feelings for me. why should I be concerned then?”

Sighing, Naruto said, “I am just going to eat some Ramen. If you do want to talk to me, come to me.” Naruto said to Kiba and Shino, “But don’t bring her.”

As Naruto started to walk away from them, Kiba spoke. “You have changed Naruto, but I don’t think it is for better.”

Naruto of course, did not respond at all. As he walked away from the team eight, without paying any attention to Hinata, this proved to be too much for her.

Thus, she ran, not knowing where she will stop.

“Dammit! Let’s go after her.”

“Yes.” With Shino’s agreement, her teammates began to pursue her.

Shino though, is not the fastest among his teammates. Thus, Kiba left him behind as he ran after Hinata.

But soon enough Shino managed to caught up with Kiba, and they both arrived on a bank of a river following Hinata.

‘This is too strange, if I remember correctly, Naruto didn’t behave like this at all, it was almost like it was someone else, maybe a spy? No, a spy wouldn’t make such a mistake about the person whom he is imitating. Then, is it possible for him to change so much?’ as Shino continue to think about the change of character in Naruto, Kiba had different thoughts going on.

‘I no he didn’t notice her when we were younger, but this is just too much. He shouldn’t have been that harsh to her. If I met with him again, I’ll have some words with him about that.’ Then a traitorous thought crept in his mind. ‘What if I take this chance to, no, no, no! Even let’s say I managed to get her, but the complications among our clans, yep, not worth it. Still I will support her with best of my abilities.’

As these thoughts were going on their minds, both of them did not talk. Because they don’t need to. Besides, they will need all of their energy to console Hinata.

Then, they both heard the crying voice of a girl, along with the noise of flowing river water.

It was kind of haunting, in some sort of dark premonition kind of way.

“Why, why her?” she asked to the river.

Kiba and Shino both arrived, and Kiba heard the question. “Listen Hinata, Naruto is not the only one, I am sure that you will find someone else,”

Shino is listening what kinds of points Kiba is using to console their only female teammate, and he agreed with what he said. Sadly, Hinata is appearing to be on her own little world. As a result, she didn’t hear a single word.

“What could be the reason?” then she took a look of herself in the reflection of river’s water. “Well, I can’t compete with her just now, can it? She is more developed then me.”

‘This is getting more serious.’ Shino thought, ‘She has stopped stuttering completely.

Kiba seems to realize this, thus his assurance becomes more frantic.

“What other reason then?” Hinata continued to think. Then she realized something.

“It must be her influence!” she suddenly yelled, for the second time in that day.

Kiba reeled in the shock, speechless to say anything else.

“I get it, she is a daughter of a merchant. Naruto most likely didn’t understand what he was getting himself into when he got together with her.”

“It also wouldn’t surprise me if her father is using this chance to gain a favor of a Shinobi.”

Both males present there thought that the situation was effectively out of their hands.

“HM, then I must become stronger!” she said. “Yes, if I become the head of my clan, then I will be able to free him from her evil clutches, since I would have a greater influence than her. Don’t worry Naruto dear, I will save you!” Hinata ran off towards her clan’s compound while saying this.

“W- What happened Shino?” Kiba asked bewildered.

“I believe, that the situation is out of our hands now.” To this, Kiba had nothing to reply.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After Yakumo had enough of walking around, she went home, still chuckling about what she did, and the reaction of other people, most important of all, the reaction of Hinata.

Meanwhile, Naruto decided to report for a mission. He is not looking forward to this, since he has gotten used to working alone in the past few years.

Naruto was already late for his first mission briefing in three years. ‘Hmhmhm, if they asked me why, I will tell them that they shouldn’t have made me the student of Kakashi.’

Since he didn’t want any side quests, he was already high enough level for upcoming challenges, he didn’t need any extra experience. ‘What the hell AM I thinking? Experience, levels, this is just too strange. Maybe I shouldn’t have killed so many innocent people… nah.’

As he continues to think about the places during his travels, and what he had seen there, his thoughts came to the current predicaments of his time.

‘I must push for a mission where I can get to Sasuke after this mission, there is no point in delaying anymore.’

* * *

(In Tsunade’s office.)

Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Tsunade were all waiting for the final member to arrive. But apparently, he was three hours late. He was supposed to arrive nine in the morning, but it was twelve in afternoon, yet there is no sign of him.

‘That idiot. If he picked up Kakashi’s habits, then,’ Sakura’s thoughts were too violent to describe.

Kakashi was feeling uncomfortable in the room, anyone will be after all, and he was receiving three glairs simultaneously.

“Stop looking me like that, I didn’t even train him in last three years! If anything, it is Jiraiya’s fault.” Kakashi, having enough of the glairs, burst out.

“Stop blaming me. Remember I didn’t also train him in these three years?” Jiraiya told him.

“Wait, Naruto didn’t train with you?” Sakura cannot believe this.

“No. apparently he ran off in just two months.” Tsunade clarified.

Sakura was too shocked to reply.

“But it is a good thing that he decided to come late.” Tsunade continued.

“Why?” everyone asked.

“Because he is behaving too differently to not be suspicious.”

“So, what do you want to do, princess?” Jiraiya remarked.

Ignoring Jiraiya’s attempt at humor, Tsunade started to give instructions to Kakashi. “You must keep an eye on him Kakashi, and make a report about his behavior.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“But Sensei, he is our teammate!” Sakura tried to say.

“Sakura! Are you trying to challenge the authority of your Hokage?” Tsunade asked in her best ordering voice.

“N- No, master.”

“Good. Kakashi, see that you remember your mission.”

“Acknowledged.”

After that conversation was over, Naruto arrived, after making them wait ten more minutes.

“You brat! How dare you pick up Kakashi’s habits?” Tsunade roared.

Then, someone asked the Dred it question, that being Sakura. “Why are you late?” she realized too late what she has done.

“You see, a shy cat, which was owned by the dog, and his bug friend got angry at me. They decided to gang upon me. So, I have to use my awesome ninja skills to get away from them.” Naruto replied, referencing the events with Yakumo and team eight, with his own twists, all the while chuckling in his head evilly after seeing their expressions.

After getting over their shock, and coming down from the sky in his thoughts because Kakashi was proud, ‘Finally, you embraced the hip ways.’ Of course, he didn’t say this out loud.

Then the mission briefing began.

“Let’s see, since we want to see after all this time, how will you participate in a team. So, a C rank mission should be sufficient.” Tsunade explained, while going through the mission list on her desk.

‘So, the news didn’t reach her yet? I must stall.’ “Why not a D rank mission?” thunder can be heard in the background from this statement.

“You… you.” Sakura didn’t find any words.

“Should I start to report already?” Kakashi in his shock forgot that person whom he had to report on, was present there and listening everything.

“Naruto, why do you want a C rank mission?” Tsunade asked, after collecting herself.

“Why not? The C rank missions, and the D rank missions have almost same pay. But the downside to C rank missions is that they could take months to complete, while you can complete a D rank mission in just few hours. Then, the Shinobi can come back for another D rank mission. This way, they can earn more money.” Naruto explained, proud of his logic.

‘Why didn’t I think of this earlier?’ everyone was thinking.

“But C rank missions offer more prestige.” Really, she should have said this much earlier. For someone who wanted to become Hokage, he will need prestige.

“Then let someone else, who want prestige do them.” He replied simply.

Before anyone can say something more on the topic, Shizune ran in the office, a decoded message in her hands.

“Lady Hokage, lady Hokage, urgent message from sand.” She informed.

“What?”

“The Kazekage has been kidnapped, by Akatsuki!” Shizune said urgently.

“What!” this time the entire room said together.

‘Great, let’s put my acting skills to the test.’ An expression of absolute fury morphed on his face.

“Lady Tsunade,” Naruto said with best possible formal voice. “I demand to be on this mission.”

Thankfully, it was not that surprising. Everyone knows about Naruto and Gaara’s friendship.

Tsunade agrees and said, “Okay. Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, I send three of you on a surveillance mission to the sand. Report the condition of the village to me.”

“Yes!” and all of them filed out of the office.

“What do you think, Jiraiya?” Tsunade asked, after everyone left.

“He knew. He knew before he entered in this office.” He replied.

“But how?”

“That is the true mystery.”

(On the leaf village gate.)

Kakashi considering how important this mission is, arrived on time.

But before they can leave for their mission, they were interrupted by a cough right behind them.

When they turned around, they saw surprisingly the clan head of Hyuga clan.

‘Not this again, this clan is getting at Uchiha level of annoyance!’ Naruto was already suspecting why the clan head is here.

“Stop right there.” Then he pointed towards Naruto. “And, you will answer my questions.” He didn’t leave any room for argument.

“And they are?” he took a slight step forward, so he can break away from Sakura and Kakashi, showing that yes, he will talk to the clan leader by himself.

“What have you done to my daughter?” he asked him bluntly.

‘Called it!’ “Nothing, to my knowledge at least.”

“Don’t lie to me, boy. You very well no what I can do to you if I don’t get answers to my question.” He tried to use an intimidation tactic.

“And what would you do?”

“To start with, I can demote you.”

“Hahaha! From what? You do no I still am a Genin? And also, if you do that, then you also would know what would I have, and what Shinobi don’t have?”

“I see.”

“What Shinobi don’t have Kakashi sensei?” Sakura asked in a whisper.

“Civilians don’t have any restrictions for leaving the village, while Shinobi have those restrictions.” Kakashi explained in a whisper, all the while observing the confrontation.

“Still, you came to know what I did to her, would you mind telling me what she did?” Naruto requested.

‘Hm, not an unreasonable request.’ “Earlier in the morning, Hinata returned from her team meeting, and locked herself inside the secret Hyuga library. The key of which, rests with the current clan head.” He explained.

“Wait, if the key was with you, then how she got that key?” Naruto didn’t get why he is responsible for this.

“She promptly attacked me, and took it by force. All the while muttering how she has to save her dear Naruto.”

“Hahahaha!” then he did a face palm when he heard what she was saying.

“From my reaction, you should realize that whatever happened, it wasn’t my fault?” Naruto said, sounding quite reasonable to himself.

“No. Hinata is a sweet and shy girl, she will do no such thing.” Sakura’s objection was cutoff in the middle.

“Indeed, she did.” Hiashi told her. Then he turned his attention towards Naruto again. “But since she was saying your name, you may have to do something with that indirectly. As a result, you must come with me.”

“He can’t, he is in the middle of the mission.” Kakashi objected.

“Does not matter. If he doesn’t come by his own will, then he will be taken by force. You are in my range of divination!”

“No, I am not!”

Since Hiashi is unused to combat, his last big fight was three years ago during sand and sound invasion, not to mention he was shocked by Naruto’s speed, he was promptly put in an inverted face lock from behind. Then Naruto jumped in the air, turned one hundred eighty degrees, and slammed his face to the ground, knocking out the clan head with a twist of fate.

“N- Naruto, you should— “

“Cut it Kakashi, if I relied on you, you would have left me here and gone on the mission alone.” Naruto said harshly, remembering the protests which sounded feeble and halfhearted to his ears.

Kakashi wanted to deny it. after all, clan head or not, Kakashi could have taken Hiashi out any time he wanted. In fact, he was ready to do so right as he was about to attack Naruto.

But then he realized by watching the face of Naruto, set in stubborn expression. He knew in that moment that Naruto would never except anything which he will have to say.

Sighing, Kakashi just turned around and walked outside of the village for the mission, his team after him.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.  
Mission: surveillance of sand village... what’s that smell?

(With team Kakashi.)

The team Kakashi was dashing throughout the forests of the fire country, determined to reach towards their mission objective, to perform surveillance on the damage done to the sand village, and report it back... or not. Kakashi was sure that the mission would end up in combat with Akatsuki.

Kakashi even during this time, have his precious book opened in his hands, but he was not reading it. Instead, he was sending these glances towards his student Naruto. The things to include in that report, which Tsunade asked him to make just keep growing and growing.

Meanwhile there was a grim expression of determination on said student’s face. But really, it was proving to be hard to keep it changing in to a bored one.

‘Seriously, pretending is hard, especially if you are with this cheery bunch.’

On the other hand, their third teammate was operating in some false assumptions, that she would get the information about the most important thing to her... or a man? It was quite hard to tell with her.

As they started to approach the border of wind and fire countries, Naruto finally broke the monotonous silence.

He stopped on a tree, sniffed the air once or twice, and said, “I can’t believe my luck.”

After seeing him stop, both Kakashi and Sakura also stop wondering why he suddenly stopped himself.

“What do you mean Naruto?” Kakashi asked.

“And why are you sniffing like Kiba?” Sakura asked.

“Can’t you smell?”

“Smell what?” Sakura asked again.

“A woman.”

“Are you sure?” Sakura still has some doubts.

“I am sure he does.” Kakashi was really amused. Imagine what he could do with such a student, who could smell a lady from a far!

After starting to dash through the forests again, Naruto’s prediction came true. There was a woman just little bit ahead of them.

“Wait, isn’t that Temari?” the woman had the blond hair; Sakura could not remember any other woman of their age having blond hair, aside from Ino. But she was in the leaf, not here.

“Who knows? Let’s ask her.” Naruto replied.

Temari, a proud Joninn of the sand village, was just finishing her patrolling of the fire and wind country border. But then, a girlish voice attracted her attention.

“Temari!” Sakura called her from some distance.

She turned around to see who called her, and saw a girl with pink hare approaching, recognizing her as Sakura.

Then team Kakashi stopped right in front of her.

She knows Sakura from her visits in the leaf village, and recognized the Jonin as the Kakashi. But the third one, he was not recognizable to her. Naturally, since she was a proud shinobi of the sand village, he put her on the edge.

“And who is this new shinobi?” she decided to ask.

“Well, I am sad that you didn’t recognize me.” The shinobi said.

“Oh him? He is Naruto.” Sakura told her.

‘Well, well, well, someone did change a lot.’ She thought.

“But what are you guys doing? From the looks of it, you are going into the wind country.”

“Why, to save your brother of course!” Naruto told her.

“What?”

“You see, your brother,” with that his expression twisted with fury. “And my best friend Gaara has been kidnapped by Akatsuki.”

After hearing that news, worry started to gnaw at Temari.

As a result, she decided to go with team Kakashi.

After clearing some more distance, the sun started to go down. Kakashi as a result decided to make camp.

“B- But, we can still clear a lot of distance.” Temari in any other situation wouldn’t have objected like this.

“Correct. But then we have to spend two nights in the desert. You might be used to it, but my team isn’t.” Kakashi explained.

His explanation put a stop to more objections. After all, even she knew that nights in the desert are unpleasant.

(After the camp was put.)

The team Kakashi and Temari were sitting around the fire, and Temari was still worrying about Gaara, exactly like the entire day.

“Gaara,” she said again.

Usually, Naruto has great patience for these kinds of things, but his patience has reached their limits. Even if he is showing his true colors after returning, well most of them anyway, this kind of miserable attitude is very much disliked by him.

So he did next best thing.

Suddenly Naruto grabbed her face, forced her to look in his eyes, and said.

“Look, Gaara is my friend, not just a friend, more like a brother to me. And we are going to save him. Despite being tasked just for surveillance, we are going to fight the Akatsuki, and save his life. Got it?”

“Y- Yeah.”

“Good. Now, sensei, I am out in the forest for some alone time.”

“Don’t take too long.” Was Kakashi’s only answer.

After Naruto was gone, Sakura decided to ask a question which was in her mind since they left the leaf village’s gate.

“Sensei?”

“Hmmm?”

“What do you think he will do?”

“Who, Naruto?” Temari asked.

“No, I meant Hiashi.” Sakura clarified.

“Why would Hiashi do anything?”

After that question, Temari got an explanation about what exactly took place between Hiashi and Naruto just before they left for their current mission.

“After listening to that, I must say that he got balls.”

“Balls? He is nuts!” this makes Kakashi snickers a little bit. “Lord Hiashi could destroy him politically.”

“But wait, didn’t he want to become Hokage? It is counterproductive to that goal if you ask me.”

“I don’t understand it either.” Sakura said confused.

“It is quite simple, actually.”

In their conversation, they didn’t realize when the subject of their conversation returned.

“Want to clarify that, Naruto?” Kakashi asked.

“It is like this. When people experience the world, they change. After gaining that experience, some of their dreams would remain same, while others would change.”

“But it is impossible.” Sakura denied. “As long as I have known you, this has been the only goal you ever took seriously.”

“Yes. But let’s be honest here, you know about my problem Kakashi sensei.” Sakura wanted to know about what problem he was talking about, but she didn’t have any chance to ask. “Tell me yourself, what do you think my chances are of becoming a Hokage?”

“Considering your current condition, and what you did today, even before that? Not a chance.” He told him flatly.

“Exactly.”

Then they started to get sleepy.

“I guess we should go to sleep now.” Temari said after a yawn.

“Okay. Then in one tent, it will be Temari and—“Sakura thought to make arrangements, but someone didn’t agree with her.

“No.” Naruto said frostily. “In one tent, it will be Temari and me.” Not giving her any chance to argue, he promptly entered in to the tent which he appointed for himself, leaving a fuming Sakura in his wake.

* * *

(With Kakashi and Sakura.)

“Who does he think he is? I am sure that pervert put himself in that tent, why?” Sakura continued to show her fury verbally.

Kakashi was a trained soldier; he had gone through a war from a very young age. But he was trying to sleep, and Sakura’s continued tantrum was not letting him.

“That’s enough Sakura!” Kakashi said with some killing intent.

“But—“

“No arguments.” The will to murder increased.

Luckily, Sakura got the hint, and started to fume quietly.

* * *

(With Temari and Naruto.)

Unlike anyone would think, Temari was not uncomfortable sharing a tent with Naruto. She was a Jonin, so she doesn’t have any worries that any normal girl might have.

Contrary to Sakura’s thoughts, Naruto didn’t have any nefarious purposes either.

“So, why did you decided to sleep here?”

“Because I don’t want to sleep with both of them. I think my training trip has instilled some bad habits regarding my patience to tolerate people.”

“Clearly.”

Then, Naruto entered in his sleeping bag, and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

(In front of hidden sand village’s gate.)

After traveling two more days, and spending one more night in the desert, team Kakashi and Temari arrived at the sand village.

“Wow, what a cheery place, no wonder that ninja’s of this village are so grumpy.” Naruto remarked.

“Oy, don’t insult us like that.” Temari rebuked.

“But seriously, why would you people live in an area like this? You must be insane!” he continued, ignoring Temari.

“Be quiet, Naruto!” Sakura just stopped from punching him, remembering that it wasn’t as same Naruto as before. Who knows what would he do in retaliation?

“Anyway, looks like everyone took a beating, can’t believe that only two people managed to do this. Or standards of the shinobi have fallen too far.” Naruto started to approach the village gates.

Since they have been attacked recently, the gates of the village are being guarded quite attentively. So when a Chunin came in front of Naruto, it didn’t surprise him. The Chunin himself was not surprised, after all, leaf and sand were allies, it was expected that leaf would send a surveillance team at some point.

But what he said though, “Lady Temari!”

“What?” Naruto said with anger in his voice. “How dare you assume that I am Temari? Just because I have blond hairs as well, doesn’t mean that I am her. How can’t you see my awesome whiskers? Do I have breasts? Do I carry a big fan with me?” he grabbed that poor Chunin from neck, and started to shake him from left to right. “So, tell me, do I look like her?”

“Um, I think he is talking about me.” Temari said from behind him.

“Oh, sorry.” He said laughing nervously, putting the Chunin down.

The Chunin and Kakashi both sweat dropped.

‘That idiot,’ Sakura wanted to punch him, but couldn’t do so due to the fear of retaliation.

“Ahem, so what did you wanted to say to me? Is it Gaara?” Temari asked.

“No, it is Jonin Kankuro.”

“What happened to him?”

After a short while, they were taken into the hospital of sand village, in the room of Kankuro.

“Kankuro, what happened to you?” Temari asked worriedly.

“He has been poisoned, and we didn’t have the antidote.” One of the medics who were working on him explained.

“Well, it looks like someone took a beating.” Naruto remarked.

“Naruto.” Kankuro croaked.

“Glad to see you, though I think we won’t get to see you away from this bed.” Naruto replied.

“Why?” Temari questioned.

“Because that poison is probably from Sasori.” He explained further.

“Wait, how did you know about Sasori?” Temari didn’t expect him to know about one of the famous criminals of her village.

“Akatsuki is after me, remember? I must know the people who would come to get me.” He elaborated.

“Makes sense.” She relented.

“If you know if it is the poison of Sasori, do you know the antidote?” Kakashi asked.

“The only thing which I can offer him is that,” then he stretched his left hand forward, and created a perfect Rasengan.

“I don’t think we need it.” Kakashi remarked.

“Well, in just fifteen minutes or so, he is going to beg for death.” he canceled the technique.

“Wait, I can do something.” Sakura decided to show her skills.

After waiting for half an hour, during which Naruto acted like he cared, and Kakashi shows the true care, Sakura managed to extract the poison from Kankuro’s body.

Naruto may have been conflicted about the reaction of Gaara when he learns of his true intentions, but that does not mean that he has to show same care for his siblings.

“Phew. I managed to extract the poison, but he won’t recover completely for a while.” She gave her diagnosis.

‘Well I guess that even she has her uses.’ Naruto was genuinely glad to see some skills developed by Sakura.

“The real question is, how would we find Akatsuki?” Temari asked.

“You won’t have to worry about It.” then Kankuro looked towards the other medics present there. “Did you retrieve all of my puppets?”

“Yes.” The medic answered.

“Then bring them to me.”

The puppets were brought to Kankuro, after which he opened one of his puppet’s arms, and retrieves a piece of cloth from it.

“I believe we can use this piece of cloth to track them.”

“I see, even in the defeat, you gain something.” Kakashi tries to give a wise remark.

“Hahaha! Of course you gain something, that something is one hell of a beating.” Naruto wasn’t buying it.

“Shut up, Naruto.” Sakura yelled.

“Still, how are we going to track them? We don’t have any of the Inuzuka’s here.” She continued after the rage subsided.

“Did you forget about me Sakura?” Kakashi asked.

“Wait, ah! I remember now.” Sakura said, just remembering what kinds of summon Kakashi have.

“Exactly. Summoning Jutsu!” Kakashi slammed his hand to the ground, and in a puff of smoke, his dog summons were present there.

“Yo Kakashi! Why did you call us?” Pakun, the leader of the summons said.

But then, he took a look of the people present there, and his eyes falls on Naruto. “You! How dare you show your face after what you did?”

‘Fuck! Of course he will no. let’s see whether there laws would be useful for me or not.’ Naruto thought franticly.

Everyone was surprised by the sudden hostility. Then Kakashi decided to ask him directly.

“What do you mean? What did he do?”

“Sorry, I am forbidden to tell any human. But no this Kakashi, if you called us to help him, then we will have to sadly deny.” Pakun told him in no uncertain terms.

“No, actually I want you to smell this piece of cloth, and track the person whom we are after. And make it quick, Kazekage’s life is depended upon our speed.” Kakashi decided to ask about this development later, they still have to save Gaara.

“Good, in that case, we will help you.” Pakun said. The dogs took a sniff of the peace of cloth, and started to run in the direction where that smell was present strongest.

Pakun, however. Did not leave immediately. “Listen Kakashi, you shouldn’t trust him.” After saying that, Pakun left just like other dogs.

“Hurry after him!” Kakashi ordered.

Then they started to chase after the dogs.

But they were interrupted by Naruto again just like the previous day.

“Wait, did you smell that?”

“What? Another woman?” Sakura asked, now getting annoyed.

“No, it is even worse. It is an old woman!” he said that with some horror in his voice.

Then true to his prediction, a very old woman jumped down in front of them, showing enough athletics to embarrass any of the young shinobi.

“Forgive me, but I like to come with you.” Then she pointed towards Kakashi. “I know whose son you are, and I very much like to kill you right here. But I don’t want our leader dead.”

“But lady Chiyo, you have been retired for so long.” Temari objected.

“Don’t worry about it girl. Besides, you will need me to counter the moves of that grandson of mine.”

Not having enough time in their hands to argue about it, they decided to let her tag with them. But as a result, Temari have to be left behind, since Baki arrived to pick her up.

* * *

(In some dank cave.)

Nine of the strongest shinobi were standing at the figure of a statue. Then one of them called Zetsu, who looked like a plant decided to speak.

“Leader, a team of leaf shinobi is coming.”

“Who are they? Is our target in that team?” the said to be leader asked.

“No. just a simple team of Chunin and Jonin.” Zetsu clarified further.

“Someone like to volunteer?” the leader asked to the other shinobi present there.

“I will.” A blue shinobi said.

* * *

(Some more time later.)

“Another team of shinobi is coming.” Zetsu said again, interrupting any conversation they were having.

“Another normal team?” the leader questioned.

“No, this time there is a container in that team.”

“Which one?” the leader asked for the clarification.

“It is nine tails.”

“Another leaf team then.” One of the figures in the shadows said.

“In that case, Itachi, you will go and stall them.” he ordered.

“Acknowledged.”

* * *

(With the rescue party.)

Apparently, the base of the Akatsuki where Gaara was kept is in the River country, which is in the middle of Fire and Wind country. And not that far from Sand village.

That is why the team at least managed to get in the forests of the River country, after which Naruto’s sense of smell forced to stop them again.

“Oh, what is that? Another smell?” he said.

“What? Right here? What kind of woman will be here?” Sakura said resigned.

“No. it is worse than that. It is the smell of garbage, the kind which can’t be used for farming, which can’t be recycled, basically it increases the wait of the planet unnecessarily. Isn’t that correct, Itachi?”

The party screeched to a halt after hearing the name, and the voice.

“It is nice to see you, Naruto.”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7.  
Snarky back stabbings.

(With Naruto and company.)

“What? How Itachi is here?” Sakura asked.

‘So this is that brother of Sasuke, who killed every one of his clan members, and tried to kidnap Naruto. I will beat him, and save everyone!’ clearly, Sakura was not having clear thoughts at that moment.

At Sakura’s question, Naruto looked at Kakashi. “Please tell me she didn’t asked that question?”

“She did.” Kakashi shook his head, disappointed in his student.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sakura demanded.

“Simple.” Naruto answered, “He is the member of Akatsuki. It is natural that he will be sent to stop us.”

Before Sakura could say something else in her defense, Chio interrupted the unprofessional argument.

“Interesting, I in my day have fought with a lot of sharingan users.” Chiyo stated.

“You fought sharingan users?” Sakura said with surprise.

“How did you even do that?” Naruto asked.

“Well, if you are alone.” She started to say, making Naruto horrified by the implications.

Thankfully, Itachi saved Naruto from further nightmare fueling contemplations. For this, he will give him a relatively peaceful death.

“I am sorry to interrupt the conversation, but I cannot let you go any further.” Itachi said stoically.

“Sorry to say that, but we must go on.” Naruto said in return.

‘Well, I should have known that we will have to fight before even we get to their base.’ Kakashi thought.

“Prepare yourselves!” Itachi said, and prepared to attack.

“Good, Naruto, I will try to flank him, and you must—“Kakashi tries to give orders, but someone didn’t agree with them.

“No.” he said flatly.

“What?” Kakashi was surprised.

“He is mine. I will fight him... alone.” He said that, with no compromises.

“Naruto, I am ordering you,” Kakashi tries to assert his authority.

“Shut up!” Naruto defies his authority.

“And you, you honestly think that you will have been able to stop me, me? I mean seriously! Have you ever met me? I am me!” Naruto said to Itachi, sounding more and more unhinged.

“If I would have been tasked to kidnap you, then yes. But stopping you here shouldn’t pose any problem.” Itachi returned, with utter confidence.

“You are using that Jutsu, are you not?” Naruto asked, knowingly.

Itachi nodded.

“Then you probably are at the thirty percent of your power. And the last time we did this, you and Kisame barely managed to get away with your lives. Speaking of him, where is he? You see, there is a girl in the mist, which I promised to take to dinner, with your partner as a main dish.” Naruto said, with an evil smirk.

“You won’t get to see him,” Itachi told him, stoically.

Then Itachi suddenly decided to attack with his sword, which was blocked by another sword in Naruto’s hand, which came out of a swirl.

They both tried to push against each other, trying to gain domination. But then Naruto suddenly moves to right, and removes his own sword, which unbalanced Itachi. Naruto took advantage of that by kicking him right into his chest, sending him flying.

Itachi tries to twist his body to at least land, but he instead collided with a tree. He spat some blood due to impact.

Naruto tries to take advantage of that, and his sword started to glow. He swings it, sending streaks of blades towards Itachi. But he was able to dodge out of their way.

The blades impacted with the tree, but nothing happens. Seeing everyone’s faces fall, he swings his sword again few times, and the tree splits in middle, right where those blades collided with it.

Before any of them could make another move, sounds of chirping birds was heard behind Itachi.

Realizing whose technique it is, He gets out of Kakashi’s way.

“You are also fighting me.” He said, trying to look cool. After all, it wouldn’t do him any good, if his student out done him every time?

“Sensei, I told you. This is my battle!” Naruto tries to reason.

“No, we will beat him with teamwork!” Kakashi was not willing to listen to the reason.

‘What can I say? I did warn him. Though Raven will be proud of what I am going to do.’ Naruto thought, the last part in some amusement.

Since Kakashi landed after his attack close to Naruto, he didn’t have to show much speed to get closer to him.

Kakashi should have turned around, but alas, he thinks that Itachi is the bigger threat.

Naruto puts his hand on his shoulder, before he could turn around, he was in a headlock, and becomes a victim of DDT.

“Now since the distraction is out of the way—“Naruto tries to say,

Sakura’s patients were finally out. So she decided to punch him, which was dodged by Naruto.

“What the fuck?”

“I should be asking you that. Why did you attack sensei?” she screamed more than asking.

Of course, in her anger she forgot to keep an eye on her surroundings. Itachi could not believe his luck, so he took advantage of this opportunity.

“If you move, she dies.” A voice said from behind her.

‘Really? Really? After training under Tsunade, who was a Hokage, a Sanin, nothing changes!’ needless to say, Naruto was not gaining any respect for his female team member.

“Itachi! I will murder you!” Naruto said with some righteous anger, but then thought better of it. “But on the other hand, considering how useless she has proven herself to be, you may proceed.” He said that with some glee.

“What?” Itachi couldn’t believe his ears.

“Naruto, how can you?” were those tears in her eyes?

“Because Sakura, even after training with Tsunade, you have nothing to show for it. Finish her!” he exclaimed.

Instead of killing her as Naruto was saying, Itachi knocked her out with the hilt of his sword.

“Seriously, a guy who could kill his entire family couldn’t kill an insignificant girl?” he said that with some amusement.

“Unlike you, I have some morals.” Itachi said, with divine anger.

“Morals? Sure. Did they help you in killing your clan?” Naruto asked knowing it would hurt him the most.

Itachi gave nothing away, except for a twitch.

“You are afraid Itachi, and it is time to admit.” Naruto told his enemy.

“No. except for that technique. And as long as leaf ninja’s are present,” he then took a look of knocked out Sakura and Kakashi, “Oh.” He realized.

“Nicely said.” With that, he disappeared in a flash of gold, which was in shape of an Eagle.

Itachi tries to defend, but he knows that in front of such a technique he can only last so long. And since he had only thirty percent of his power, it will be much more harder.

Naruto comes out of another flash, trying to slash at Itachi’s neck. Being this Itachi Uchiha, he gets away, with the only cut on the arm to show for it.

“I am out of patience, Itachi. Ten flash blades!” Naruto announced the name of the technique, which he comes up with on the spot.

Naruto disappeared in another black flash, reappearing and disappearing ten times, and slashing at him. As a result, Itachi, or at least the body he was occupying burst into the fountain of blood.

Naruto took a look at the head, which was the only part of the body which was intact.

“Do you know who that person is?” he asked the only person there who wasn’t unconscious, or dead.

“That is captain Yura; he probably was one of the spies of Sasori.” The said person told him.

“Alas captain Yura, I know you well... no. got to come up with better one.” He said that with some annoyance.

After a while, both of his teammates regain consciousness.

Kakashi wakes up. Then he remembers who exactly knocked him out.

“Ah! Ware is Itachi?” that was his first question.

“Not here.” Naruto answered.

Seeing that the Genin was telling the truth, he decided to ask another question.

“Why did you knocked me out?” he asked another important question.

Naruto sighs. “Look sensei, I will explain everything once we are out of this situation.” He told him.

Also, for some strange reason, Naruto shivers, as if he has painted himself in a corner.

“Fine. But don’t pull any stunts like that again, got it?” he ordered him firmly.

“Got it.”

“What happened?” then Sakura wakes up.

“I am not explaining again.”

* * *

(With the villain group.)

“So, did you managed to stall them?” a voice said.

Two figures on the statue moved.

“Yes, I managed to tire them out. They won’t be aiding anyone for a while.” The blue one replied.

“And you?” the voice, who was apparently leader, askes.

“While I did stall them for a while, I was marginally less successful then Kisame.” Itachi tried to explain.

“Why?” he questioned.

“Apparently, the Jinchuriki is strong, and I was only at thirty percent.” He gave his reasons.

“Still, as long as they wouldn’t get here, it would be fine.” The leader concluded.

“Don’t worry, as far as I no Kakashi, he won’t be arriving here, until the other team reaches them.” Itachi assured.

“Good.” With that, the conversation was over.

* * *

(With the rescue party.)

“Why a cave? It is always a cave. I will be happy for once if they set their base on a five star hotel.” Naruto quipped.

“We won’t be entering in the enemy base until the backup team arrives.” Kakashi told everyone.

“Back up team?” Naruto asked.

“Yes. Before getting out for this mission, lady Hokage decided to send one.” He explained.

“Great. Who is it?” he asked.

“Team Gai.” Kakashi said.

“Well, until they arrive, better take a nap.” He said, and started to do as he said.

“Naruto! This is Akatsuki we are talking about. Be more serious, we have to be on our guard all the time.” Sakura screeched.

“Yes, yes, otherwise we will forget to keep an eye on our surroundings, and would be captured by our enemies, and be used as a hostage.” Naruto used the incident from earlier mercilessly, “Tell me Sakura, there are two of the S rank shinobi inside that cave, who managed to kidnap a Kage right from his own village. And against them are you. What do you think your chances are?” he asked her, completely opposite of her, utterly calm.

“If I can’t beat them, then I will try my hardest, or die trying!” she told him, with an impressive speech. She also made sure that she did not let show the effects of the cutting words of Naruto in her voice.

“Impressive speech. Except for another missed point. You are thinking that they will point you in the direction of Sasuke.” He remarked.

“And what if I do think that? Jealous?” she asked, self-importantly, trying to get back at Naruto for his earlier comments.

“No, not really. I think leaving you with Uchiha is the closest thing I could do to damage him, short of killing him. But the problem with your thinking is that they won’t give you any information like that.” He explained, in much detail as possible.

“And why is that?”

Clearly, if she failed to understand that, then he probably forgot a detail or two. “Simple. Orochimaru used to be the member of their organization, but he ended up betraying them. And Akatsuki do not believe in traitors. So if they had any information about his whereabouts, they would have already killed him.”

That was enough to quiet her.

“And how do you know about them so much?” Kakashi suddenly asked.

“Have to no your enemy and all that crap.” He gave his reasoning.

“Agreed.” Kakashi could not find anything wrong with it.

With that, they started to wait for their youthful comrades to arrive.

* * *

(One hour later...)

‘I swear, if Gai didn’t arrive in ten minutes, I will kill him first.’ Naruto was planning his first murder.

Indeed Naruto’s patients were running out, after all. You can only nap for so much in front of enemy base.

Thankfully for Naruto, a voice comes from really far, signifying that waiting time is over and nearly making him deaf.

“Kakashi! My eternal rival! I am here!” Gai boomed.

Naruto looked towards Sakura, and asked. “Are you two related?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Your love for screaming.”

Sakura was fuming, but she couldn’t retort due to the muscled frame of one Rock Lee.

“Beautiful lady Sakura, how are you this youthful day?” Lee asked her, though he didn’t yell as loud as his mentor.

“I-I am good.”

As much as it would be amusing to see Sakura trying to politely decline Lee’s advances, Naruto was instead checking other two members of team Gai.

He walked up to Neji, and they both shared knowing smirks, but didn’t exchange any words.

It was completely different with the female member of that team though.

“Hello there.” He said to Tenten, in his best gentleman like voice.

“H, hello?” she returned uncertainly, she was not used to such direct advances.

“You know, since my return I am happy that one of the girls I used to no has turned out so well.” He complemented.

Sakura, of course heard what Naruto was saying, but she did not want to lose her temper in front of three Jonin. So, she did not take the bait.

“Why, thank you.” She at least managed to return that with straight face.

‘Horny bastard.’ Neji chuckled in his head. Of course, he knew that he is interested in Tenten, so Naruto is trying to rile him up through her.

perhaps they both might be considered cruel, since their future plans do not leave much room for such luxuries. But then again, both of them do not consider themselves as a good person, and as far as no one else knows what they have planned for the future, they can’t call them cruel or anything else.

“Don’t worry, I will tell you how much I myself have change in these years.” He removed his sunglasses, and winked at her.

This time, she couldn’t resist, and melted on the spot. Truly, Tenten was really not used to such direct advances.

“Ahem.” Of course, someone has to interrupt his fun.

“You mind doing all this after we are done here?” Kakashi asked. Really, he was not in opposition of the said things done, but still, there is a time and place.

Fortunately Naruto obeyed without a fuss.

“So, Kakashi, what’s the status?” Gai asked.

“There are two Akatsuki members inside that cave. The cave itself is shielded by some sort of barrier seals.” He explained.

“Hm, Neji?”

Neji understood the command without any more words, and activated his eyes. “Byakugan!”

He scanned the rock and the barrier surrounding it, and started to give the information.

“It is as Kakashi sensei said, it is covered by a barrier. If we want to remove that barrier, then we have to remove those seal tags together in sink.” He gave his verdict.

“In that case, Naruto, you will go with team Gai to remove that seal.” Once again Kakashi tries to give orders.

Neji gave a discreet look to him, and he nodded imperceptibly.

“Actually, it will be better if sensei and us go for removing that barrier, our teamwork will help us to do that in perfect synchronization.” Neji pushed the universal button of Kakashi.

“Okay then. As soon as you remove that barrier, we and lady Chiyo will enter that cave.” Kakashi, happily gave the expected output.

When they get the signal, “the barrier is up.” Kakashi told Sakura,

“Sakura, mind showing us your strength?” Kakashi asked.

“Of course! Hell yeah!”

‘Really? You seriously have to shout the literal translation?’ Naruto thought about someone, but who he couldn’t put his finger on that. ‘But she can prove useful for the demolition work. Pretty sure shouldn’t suggest her directly that though.’

“Hurry, to the cave!” Kakashi ordered dramatically.

* * *

(In soon to be destroyed cave.)

“Hmhm, they are late, wouldn’t you agree?” someone chuckled in the shadows.

“Agreed. They have made me wait a lot, As a result causing valuable time to be wasted, which I could have spent on my art. Thus, I will hold them forever in contempt. I hate waiting.” Another voice said to the first one.

“Little too wordy, don’t you think?” the first one asked again.

“For my art, I will speak as long as I want to.” The second one returned.

“Ha! As if what you do could qualify as an art.” The first voice remarked.

“My art is true art.” The second one says.

“No.” the other figure created a sculpture in his hand, and made it explode. “The true art is the blast, katsu!”

“Katsu, Hm, maybe I can use it? Exactly. This has to be lucky day of mine!” Naruto suddenly spoke.

“Look, Sasori. Someone appreciates my art.” The first voice says.

“Wait, you are Sasori?” Naruto questioned.

“Yes.” The crouched figure, said to be Sasori replied flatly.

“As a high counsel member of the Manly man club, I want to inform you that you have been expelled.” Naruto announced, like a judge.

“What?” this was really unexpected for him, and he didn’t break any rules!

“Yeah, you lost too many man points to be considered a member anymore.” Naruto explain further, for the benefit of that poor soul.

“Naruto shut up!” Sakura screeched.

“Sakura, shut up! This is an urgent matter.” Kakashi berated her. After all, the work of the Manly man club cannot be put on hold, even for the wars.

Sakura was too shocked to reply.

“Anyway, we both are quite happy nine tails that you decided to brought yourself to us.” Sasori said, over from the shock from the unexpected news.

“Yes. I will capture you, and show that Uchiha, yeah!” the other man remarked.

Then as those members of Akatsuki moved, there appears to be a body among them.

“No, we are too late.” Sakura said, forlornly.

Seeing that situation is about to evolve in to hostile, Naruto and Kakashi prepared themselves. Kakashi started to give orders rapidly, as Dedara created another sculpture and took Gaara’s body and flew away.

“Naruto, you are coming with me. Sakura take care of the other member.”

“No. you should take Sakura, I will take care of Sasori.” Once again, Naruto defied Kakashi’s order.

“Why is that?” the Jonin asked. His constant defiance is getting on his nerves.

“Because when you will recover Gaara, you will need a medic to examine him. I can’t even believe that you didn’t thought of that. How the hell did you become Jonin?” Naruto told him with some snark.

“Fine! Sakura come with me.”

“Yes!” fortunately for Kakashi, his other student didn’t defy his orders.

After that, both of them took after Dedara.

“Phew. Finally some peace and quiet.” Naruto said, completely relaxed.

“You do no as long as I am here, you won’t have such luxuries?” Sasori quipped.

“Yeah. Forgot that. Fine. Let us begin the battle, between two of us.” Naruto forgot to count the third person there.

“Perhaps you are not counting me?” said person asked.

“No.” he told her flatly.

“Any reason?” Chiyo the old lady asked again.

“You are old.” Once again, he told her flatly.

“Any other reason?” the lady still continued to ask.

“No.” he told her, signifying that conversation was over.

“Enough! Let us—“before Sasori could finish his war cry, he was interrupted in the middle.

“Wait, before that, I like to offer you something.” Naruto said.

“I am listening,” Sasori retorted.

“You see Sasori,” he brought a contract from somewhere. “I know what kind of person you are. You aren’t not like other shinobi. First and foremost, you are a creator. Thus, I offer you unlimited resources, to do as you please.” he puts his first offer.

“And how do you think that I am a creator?” he asked in return.

“Because you created a lot of the things. You practically gave the foundation of the sand’s puppet core, you created a lot of techniques, seals, and the list is endless. I like people like you, and despise people like Kakashi. Because he stole thousands of techniques, yet created only one? And that one is not even that good.” Again, some annoyance leaked into his voice when talking about the copy ninja.

Naruto may like emulating Kakashi for getting on everyone’s nerves, but that does not mean he has to like Kakashi himself.

“So?” Sasori still didn’t see why he should join him.

“So, I like you to join with me.” He finished his explanation.

“As if. Besides, as long as Akatsuki is around, I can’t except your offer.” He told the Jinchuriki.

“Hahaha! Don’t worry about them. Once I am done with my current plans, I will go there and kill every one of them. And annihilate that village, just to be safe.” After all, if that village could produce one organization like this, there is no reason why they couldn’t produce another one.

“You really are deranged as they say. So, no. I won’t join you.” He clearly didn’t have any plans to join a madman.

“Why?” Naruto asked, perplexed.

“Because I joined one organization, and look what happened.” Sasori was really not happy. Working for Akatsuki really stole his freedom. He ran from sand for exactly that purpose, yet he ended up in another organization.

“Fair enough. Though you will have to die in that case.” Naruto said while burning the contract he brought out. Naruto wouldn’t allow him to get out of that cave alive.

Chiyo, who went ignored by both of them, started to connect the dots in her head. ‘So, the bingo book entry was about him? How amusing that the world doesn’t even realize that both of them are same person.’ She thinks in her head.

“Better people then you have tried, Uzomaki.” He growled.

Then apparently done with talking, Sasori opens a compartment out of his scorpion puppet, and started to fire a study stream of needles.

Naruto... was dodging them without even moving from the spot.

“This can’t be the only thing you are capable of, tell me this is not true?” Naruto was expecting something better... well better!

Then, as soon as it was started, the rain of needles stopped. But instead, there was a torrent of water coming at him now.

“Yo! Don’t you know it is a crime to steal other shinobi’s specialties? I bet Kisame won’t like what you are doing right now.” Then he thought. ‘Hm. If there were copyright laws in this world, Kakashi would have been buried in so many law suits, hahaha! Wait, then the Uchiha clan… years’ worth of lawsuits… haaaaahahahahahaha!’

“He is not here, so it doesn’t matter.” He didn’t care about the opinion of that shark man.

Naruto was doing good so far, but then a voice came from behind him, which distracted him.

“Allow me to help you, I no his techniques, and—“Chiyo tried to say, but was interrupted in the middle.

“No. you will stay where you are. I will need you later.” Naruto told her. Unfortunately, that took his attention from his enemy.

Seeing him distracted again, Sasori started to fire needles again. This forced Naruto to move.

“Ha! Got you.” He suddenly said, with some excitement.

“What?” then he looked down, to see a needle sticking out of his leg.

“You,” Naruto said, horrified.

“Exactly. Despite your impressive strength, you still are a mere child, walking among the monsters.” Sasori bragged.

“You!” then Naruto’s face twisted from horrified to amusement. “You do know what I am?”

‘Right. He is a Jinchuriki; his demon will expel the poison.’ He thought, trying to come up with a plan.

“Haaaahahahaha! Realized it, haven’t you?” Naruto’s laugh was echoing in that cave.

“Then, why?” he couldn’t think strait!

“Why was I angry? It is because you ruined my pants! My perfect beautiful pants, do you realize how expensive they are?” he roared.

“Well,” he didn’t get a chance to finish.

“Of course you don’t. Considering you spent most of your time confined in your puppet,” Sasori was surprised. “You wouldn’t no. they cost me eight hundred ryo, you piece of wood!” he yelled.

“You know what? I don’t like you anymore. It is time to kill you.” Naruto was really done with him.

“Foolish boy. As if you would be able to touch me. You won’t even know my secret—“Sasori tried to give an impressive speech, but Naruto was not in the mood.

Another laugh echoed in the cave. “Haaahahahaha! I know all about your secrets, like how you are a puppet yourself, about the third Kazekage, and many more.” Then Sasori observed something.

The boy’s eyes were glowing orange. Then before Sasori could think of something else, fire started to surround Naruto’s body.

“Let’s see how you deal with this. Now, you are going to witness the most strongest fire attack there is! FireBlast!” then five blasts of fire came out of his hands, and they started to track Sasori.

Before he can even take out kazekage puppet, those blasts of fire were upon him. He didn’t even realize he was screaming in rage. Then those blasts collided with him, creating a big explosion, which destroyed the cave.

* * *

(Outside of the destroyed cave.)

As soon as she saw the move of that boy, Chiyo decided to cut her losses, and get the hell out of there. Seeing that entire place was in ruins, her decision turned out to be correct.

Then she heard someone teleporting besides her.

“I see why you chose me as your partner.” She told that boy, who was in her eyes no boy at all.

“Really! Why don’t you tell me then?” he decided to humor her.

“So you can get rid of me without a problem.” She told him flatly.

“Half correct. I do need you for something else though.” He corrected her.

“And that is?” She asked.

“Why? From observing you so far, I don’t think you have any reason to keep him alive.” She really was not getting the point.

“For your own peace lady, I won’t tell you.” There was no point in telling her after all.

“Fine. I am tired of living anyway.” She really was.

* * *

(After Kakashi and others arrive.)

‘Hm, so he really died.’ Naruto thought while observing the body of Gaara.

Still, some acting was in order. “S- Sakura, is he?”

Despite Naruto being annoying her, she knew how both Kazekage and her teammate were close. Thus it was with a heavy heart she said, “No, he, he is dead.”

“No.” Then he thought. ‘Damn I should get an award for this.’

“Look Naruto, we couldn’t do anything now—“she was cutoff in the middle by Chiyo.

“May I see him?” she requested.

“O-Okay.” Sakura didn’t see any problem with that.

As they continue to talk among themselves, Gaara’s body gave a twitch. Then another twitch. Then with a mighty effort, he was able to sit up.

“Impossible! I checked his nerves myself, he was dead!” Lee said, disbelieve evident in his voice.

“Don’t worry lee,” Kakashi assured. “This is one of the forbidden techniques of the sand. Lady Chiyo has sacrificed her life for Gaara.” He explained.

* * *

(Next day)

Team Gai left the village already, and now, it was Team Kakashi who was getting a farewell.

But Naruto’s thoughts were somewhere else. ‘Let’s see, they will surely ask me whether that puppet moron gave me any information about Orochimaru’s whereabouts or not. Hm, in that case, the coming time is perfect!’ it was time to advance his nefarious plans.

How lucky that he already has some information which he would be able to use for making sure that he is present on the correct place at the correct time.

With words of farewell, and different thoughts among themselves, members of team Kakashi left the village Hidden in the sand.

(End.)

Author’s notes:

Again, aside from aligning the changes to the overall plot, I didn’t find anything worth altering in this chapter, unlike the few early ones.

See you in the next chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.  
Results of the surveillance, and another mission.

(In Tsunade’s office.)

“So, to summarize, you killed one of the Akatsuki members, and the other one is missing, saved Kazekage, while the only loss is Kakashi’s reckless use of his Sharingan?”

“Exactly.” The Team Kakashi nodded.

“But Naruto did have some information, which he refused to share with us.” Sakura reported, annoyed.

‘Why did she have to word it like that, as if I am not planning to tell them?’ he thought in his head, but outside, he said. “Because sand village has already proven to be compromised. If I would have told you there, someone would have unavoidably heard, and then the information would be useless.”

“Point.”

“So, what’s the information?” the Hokage asked.

“Apparently, Sasori has a spy with Orochimaru. He said that he was going to meet him at heaven and Earth Bridge, before dying.” Naruto explained.

“And you think this spy could get us to him?” Tsunade questioned.

“Yes.” It was his simple answer.

‘And if we managed to get to the Orochimaru’s base, I can save Sasuke.’ Even with Sakura’s harsh training, some things are hard to let go.

“Then I will have to prepare an ambush team then.” She remarked.

“Request to join that team?” Sakura asked.

‘Well, it’s not like I wasn’t expecting it. Besides, she is a good medic. She would be useful.’ She thought. “Permission granted.” Tsunade nodded.

“Actually, I was thinking that I should go on that mission as well.” Naruto said, surprising both women present there. Considering his recent behavior, they thought he would not care about his missing teammate.

“Why?” Sakura couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes, especially in light of your recent actions,” Tsunade continued.

‘Yes, specially my recent actions are the reason why I must go, can’t these people get with the plan already?’ Naruto thought.

“Look. Whatever you guys think about me, it is not correct. Besides, what kind of friend I would be, if I didn’t even try to save him?” then he added in his head. ‘A terrible one.’

“Okay. Then both of you will need to be prepared, I will tell you later who would be your remaining two team members would be.” Tsunade gave them their orders.

With that, one Chunin and one Genin walked out.

* * *

(On the streets of hidden leaf village.)

On his way, Naruto managed to find Team Gai who has just submitted their reports about the recent mission that they have.

“Naruto, Lee and I like to test your flames of youth!” Gai was saying.

“Yes, Gai sensei and I shall test your flames of youth!” Lee was clearly in favor, especially since he just might have a chance to avenge his loss from before.

“Fine! Then we will race to the hokage monument. Whoever arrives there first would win.” He agreed easily.

“Yosh!” both of them screamed, and started to race towards the mountain, leaving a dust cloud in their wake.

“Neji?” the female member of the team Gai asked.

“Yes Tenten, you saw same thing as I did. And I can’t believe It.” the Hyuga answered her.

“Me neither.” Tenten said.

“Me neither.” Naruto said from behind them.

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to be in the race right now?” Tenten was surprised.

“Ha! As if. Besides, even if they realized that I am not with them anymore, they will continue to run.” Neji smirked while hearing the explanation

“True.” She agreed.

“But aren’t you worried that Lee will brag to entire village that he is stronger than you?” she asked another question.

“No, as far as I know him, he is not that kind of person.” Despite his dislike of people of this village, if he had to put his trust on someone, he would gladly put that trust on Lee, even if he hates him.

‘Yes, yes, I am a complicated and a terrible person. Can we get on with this?’

“As much as he annoys me with his ‘youthfulness,’ I completely agree.”

As Neji and Tenten continue to talk about their strange teammate, Naruto was having some different thoughts.

‘Soon, I am going to meet him. Soon!’ but then, there was a different scene in front of him.

(Inside Naruto’s imagination, Orochimaru’s lair.)

“Sasuke, I have finally come to save you from the evil clutches of Orochimaru!” Sakura was saying.

“As you have saved me, I am forever in your debt.” Sasuke replied.

“Sasuke let us go back to the leaf village, and create your clan!” The imaginary kunoichi squealed.

“No Sakura, the village is too far. Not to mention, I have been suppressing my will for all these years.” Sasuke said, barely holding back.

(Back to the plot)

“Uzomaki, your face is telling me that you have seen the end of the world.” Neji said, when he noticed Naruto was lagging behind them.

“I very well may have.” He replied, still horrified.

But he quickly snapped out of it, and remembered what he was supposed to be doing at this moment.

“Neji, I like to talk to you regarding something.”

“What? Don’t tell me you can’t talk in front of me?” Tenten huffed.

“Nah, the thing is, it is some guy stuff. If I talk to him in front of you, I think we both wouldn’t be able to explain the situation to each other.” Naruto gave his excuse.

“Wow, never thought that someone would take advice on those matter from you.” Tenten finally had a clear idea.

He grunted at her remark.

“Oh well, I still have to go at my shop. See you later.” She decided it was none of her business, and left.

“See you later.” Neji nodded, and said.

* * *

(In some hideout, under the Hidden in the leaves.)

“Phew. I thought that she wouldn’t buy the excuse.” Naruto breathed in relief.

“Yeah, next time think of something better.” Neji ribbed.

“Yeah, yeah, seriously though. Nice place, how did you found it?” time to ask some questions.

“As you no, we needed a place where chances of our discovery are lowest. First, I thought of Hokage monument, considering how rarely it is used.” Neji began to explain.

“Not a bad choice. But the problem with that place would be, it’ll come in use sooner or later.” Naruto immediately saw the problem.

“Exactly. So, after removing Hokage monument from the list, actually nothing remains.” Neji said, a bit embarrassed.

“So much for great Hyuga strategy.” Naruto mocked.

“Oh, shut up. Besides, I think for this place, we should be thanking miss future Uchiha.” He relished the look on Naruto’s face.

“Sakura, why? You do no I hate thanking her, right?” he really didn’t want to do that.

“Yeah, but this time, her personal interests proved to be useful for us for a change.” Neji explained, now getting serious.

“How?” apparently, he still didn’t get it.

“Apparently, Orochimaru used to has an entire system of hidden underground lairs. But it was discovered by the Third.” He saw how blond teen flinched as he said “Third,” but decided not to comment on that.

Naruto flinched. “But in that case, ANBU are sure to be a where of this area,”

“No. despite him being able to discover few of them, he was never able to find all the hideouts underground. So, I just searched from my awesome skills, and voila! A secret hiding place.” Since he was no longer in the presents of villagers, he could express his true personality, instead remaining uptight all the time.

“Good job.” Naruto said with a smile.

“Listen, I think you should really let go about the situation with Third.” He told him flatly.

“I know, right? But it is not easy. After all, he showed me such kindness, and he didn’t have any reason!” sometimes, Naruto really despise his emotions.

“Yeah, true. Besides, I think if he wasn’t bogged down by the responsibility of being Hokage, he would have adopted you.” Neji agreed.

“Maybe. Still, he is dead, and in no position to complain.” Naruto resolved himself.

“True. True.”

“So, let’s plan about that other stuff I told you earlier.” Then a new topic began.

* * *

(In Tsunade’s office.)

Tsunade was doing the most hated part of the job of being Kage, that being paperwork. It was not like she liked to do that, if the stuff didn’t need to be kept secret, and those elders wouldn’t bitch about it, then she might have employed someone to sort it out. But as it stands now, she does it with growing resignation, and in an utter fatalistic way.

But then, there was a knock on the door.

“Enter,” she drawled.

Any hope for this being a break from this boring task was shattered with the arrivals of the elders called, Hamura and Kaheru.

‘Why? Why them?’ she cursed her poor luck in her head. “So, what brings you to my office? After all you have to climb a lot to get here. You might end up...... breaking something if you continue to ignore your health.” Hoping petulantly that exact situation would occur somehow.

“We have come here to ask you about the Jinchuriki.” Hamura said for the both of them, ignoring the remarks about their health, and the hopeful tone it was said in.

“Him? What problem you have with him now?” she really didn’t like this.

“None.” Kaheru replied. “But we have heard you have conscripted him in the team to go and find the spy at the heaven and earth bridge.”

Tsunade wanted to strangle whoever leaked that information to them.

* * *

(Outside.)

Shizune shuttered in fear.

* * *

(Inside.)

“So, do you have any problems with how I assign my soldiers to missions?” depending upon their answer, she may or may not give them a beating.

“No. but considering the importance of the boy...... we counsel forbid you from sending the Jinchuriki on anymore missions.” He announced as much authority as he could.

“You,” Tsunade let some killing intent out. “Of the counsel cannot forbid me of anything.” The nerve of some people!

“Very well.” The old man with the permanent frown on his face said, incidentally taking steam out of Tsunade’s anger.

‘It’s too easy. What’s the catch?’ Tsunade thought, Having a bad feeling.

“But in return, one of the team members would be our choosing.” Kaheru said.

Right on the cue, another old man, with one arm on the cast, one bandaged eye, and with a cane came out of shadow.

“You old coots, you want that cripple to accompany them?” Tsunade was acting incredulous, but knowing there is not a way that she could send that old man with the team, despite a warm feeling in her heart if he were to die in that mission.

“Good day to you, lady Hokage. While I am honored that you think me suitable for a mission, it is not me who will accompany the Jinchuriki to the mission,” he said, without an infliction in his voice, making it sound like he was reading from a script.

“And let me guess, that member would be from your root?” she questioned.

“Exactly.”

“Fine!” she roared. “Now, get lost!”

Unaware to all the experienced ninja’s in the room, there was someone who was hiding, and listening to their plans.

* * *

(With the dragon and Hero? That has to be wrong.)

“Good. Good.” Naruto nodded, happy that all the plans were progressing nicely. “What about the food supply though?”

“Simple. Take over the land of rice, tea, vegetables, Honey, you get the idea.” Neji didn’t like the naming scheme of those places.

“Hahaha! That would surely fuck up their food supply, while causing absolutely no problems for us.” Naruto laughed.

“True.” That is exactly why he suggested that.

Before they can continue their plans further, a voice interrupted them.

“I had important news!” the voice was saying, while huffing and panting.

Naruto recognized the voice. “Him? You recruited him?”

“Why not? Not only is he strong. In fact, he has proved to be one of the most important spies we have.” Neji retorted.

Then the said spy entered the room.

“Neji, I,” then he saw who else was in the room. “Naruto?”

“What, not going to call me big brother anymore?”

“Ha! You always would be my big brother. But joking aside, I have some important news for both of you.” The boy continued.

“Oh? Do tell regarding what?” Naruto was really curious.

“Your next mission.” He told him. Then he went on to give the details. “Apparently, this afternoon when I was walking away from one of the mission briefings of mine, I saw the elders Hamura and Kaheru enter Tsunade’s office.”

The fact didn’t escape Naruto’s attention how he didn’t call her lady Hokage. “Continue.”

“I thought it could be important, so I hide myself from that technique which Neji taught me for spying. It makes hard to sense the chakra spikes.” Naruto throws an approving glance towards Neji when he heard this. “I couldn’t have been more right. They were first insisting that she shouldn’t send you on that mission.”

“MMM, makes sense.”

“Why?” the Hyuga needed to see it from all the angles.

“Why not put me on some other mission, where they could flaunt their weapon?” Naruto said, while pointing to himself.

“Anyway, she refused.” He continued.

“Wait, she did?” this was surprising for the Jinchuriki.

“Naruto, don’t interrupt me.” The boy chastised.

“Sorry.”

“So, they told her that one of the team members who would go with you would be their choice.” he continues to explain further, happy there would be no more interruptions.

“And she agreed? Told you, she might be strong, but she has no leadership skill.” So, it was not that much surprising after all.

“But then this crippled old guy with a cane comes out of the shadow,” Konohamaru completely ignored Naruto’s comment.

“Hahahaha! You may stop. I know what happened.” His laughter echoes at still empty hideout.

“Oh? Do tell.” Neji really didn’t have much time to listen about his past exploits.

“He told her that one of the members would be from the root division. And she agreed.” Naruto predicted.

“Exactly. But, how did you know that?” the Sarutobi confirmed the prediction, and asked the question.

“Because my younger brother that crippled with the cane named Danzo played too many times in to my hands.” Naruto explained.

“But you know what this means, Neji?” he asked to the Hyuga.

“What?”

“One of the remaining positions would be filled with a member of Tsunade’s choosing.” He elaborated.

“Hm, true. But, who would she choose? Your team leader is in the hospital.” Neji knew that Kakashi was in hospital, due to the news spreading fast among the Jonin.

“Probably someone strong. And from someone from the ANBU.” Naruto surmised.

“Why one of the ANBU?” he asked.

“Ever heard rumors about how one of them has the wood release?” Naruto questioned in return.

“Ah, him.” Neji finally understood.

“Exactly.”

“But what wood release has to do with anything?” apparently, he had researched all the prominent ANBU members.

“Because the user of that element can control the tail beast chakra.”

“So, in turn, he could control you.” Neji connected the dots.

“Exactly.”

“Aren’t you angry about it?” Konohamaru asked.

“I would have been, but I won’t waste the effort and the energy on this one. Besides, to control the chakra, they will need the first Hokage’s neckless. It is impressive that no one noticed, I was on a mission, fought with an S rank puppeteer, came back, was in the presents of the previous owner of that neckless multiple times, still, nothing.” Naruto explained, becoming more and more incredulous at the end.

“To be honest, they probably didn’t because of the strong notice-not-neckless genjutsu.” Konohamaru finally managed to crack that one.

In three seconds, laughter of all three of them echoes in the area.

“Haaaahahahahahaha! I think someone is going to receive the biggest surprise of their life, and it is not even on their birthday!” Neji laughed at the thought of upcoming misery Naruto was about to cause.

“Yeah.” But then Naruto got serious. “Still, I suggest you made the future plans according to our situation.”

“Yeah, you are going to expose yourself.” Neji already knew this step to be crucial.

“This is the only chance I would have.” He explained both people present there, all the mirth gone from his voice.

“Good luck, big brother.” Konohamaru wished.

“Thanks.” He nodded.

With that the boy disappeared.

“Can’t believe his own grandson is against him now.” Naruto quipped.

“All the better that he is dead, and can’t complain.” Neji echoes the words of Naruto’s own from earlier.

“True. Answer a question, will you?” he asked with a grin.

“What?” Neji really didn’t like that grin.

“Did you shag Tenten?” he asked.

“I might have?” he replied, though it comes out more as a question, because he really didn’t want to give any ideas.

Before he could say more, Naruto disappeared, and left a note on his place. It stated:

“Too late, buddy.”

“Damn it!”

* * *

(In Kakashi’s hospital room.)

Tsunade had finally enough time to check upon Kakashi, so she not only was seeing the results of uses of Mangekyo Sharingan, but was trying to get some understanding of Naruto’s behavior in that mission.

“So, you finally used it didn’t you?” she asked him, while Jiraiya observed from some distance, leaning against the wall. “Good job!” she added sarcastically.

Sadly, her sarcasm was getting wasted, since Kakashi was in no condition to reply.

“So, you stated in that report which I asked you to prepare, that Naruto and Itachi has some history?”

Realizing the importance of the questions, Kakashi managed to get enough strength to talk for a shorter period.

“Not just history, apparently, Kisame and Itachi barely escaped him last time they met.”

“But wait,” Jiraiya was surprised. “The only contact he has with him when I took him with me to find you. Since then, he never met any of them.”

“And there was some girl from the mist, who he wanted to take on dinner, with Kisame as a main dish.” Kakashi added.

“Yeah, now you are talking.” Jiraiya agreed wholeheartedly with where the line of questioning was going.

“Back on track you two! If he didn’t collide with them in your watch, then it is possible that he would end up fighting with them during his escape of three years.” Tsunade decided.

“Most likely.” Jiraiya now serious, agreed.

Having no more questions, Tsunade walked out of the room, Jiraiya was behind her.

* * *

(Later, in Kakashi’s hospital room)

“Ah, Tenzo. How nice of you to come see me,” Kakashi was saying, having regain some strength after sleeping when Tsunade and Jiraiya left.

“Really, it is no big deal. But seriously, stop calling me that.” The ANBU without a masked said.

“Anyway, I know what kind of mission you have been selected for.” Kakashi broached the subject.

“Oh?” he was not surprised.

“Yes. Tell me, what do you know about Naruto Uzomaki?”

“Not much. I remember from listening to people that he was a loud brat, but after becoming a Genin, he started to grow a little. But since his training trip, he has come back different.” He finished.

* * *

(In Tenten’s workshop.)

Neji finally managed to arrive at the shop, but he is breathing heavily. He is not used to traveling such distances with such speed.

“Tenten? Did you see Uzomaki?”

Waking up with a startle at Neji’s question, Tenten fell down from the chair on which she was sleeping, while her head collided with the counter.

Smirking, Neji walked closer. “Oh, I am sorry for startling you like that. let me check your head…”

* * *

(In the Dango shop, with Anko and Kuranai.)

“Haaahahahaha!” from her laughter, it was clear that one Anko Mitarashi was enjoying her day.

“It is not a laughing matter!” the woman with the red eyes, who was sitting next to her said, disapproval clear in her voice.

“But it is really hard to resist. “She replied, still chuckling.

“Why?” she really didn’t think it was funny.

“Because Hinata, the shy student of the Ice Queen, finally snapped!” she might as well have announced it for all the elemental nations to hear the news.

“Anko! You are attracting too much attention.” This is exactly why she didn’t want to share, but Anko badgered her.

“Anyway,” she ignored her friend’s protests, “Did you know who exactly was the girl with him?”

“No. as far as I know, no one of that description lives in the village.” Kuranai was worried.

“Hm. Maybe I’ll need to dig some information. “this is now getting interesting. What if that loudmouth brat got himself tangled with a spy?

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After spooking Neji by making him think what he is going to do with Tenten, Naruto was walking towards his new home, while watching the sunset.

‘I am sure that some guy is probably playing a cheesy music in his head, while watching this sunset.’ Then he saw something else. ‘Birds, how cute. Wait, there are two, three birds, and they are coming towards me?’ he didn’t have long to contemplate.

Now surprised, he managed to get out of their way. But then he saw that those birds weren’t looking natural.

‘Never seen these types of birds before. They look like a drawing, a child’s drawing.’

While scanning the surrounding area for the person who could have sent those birds after him, which was clearly a work of a ninja, he found a guy who was sitting on a high vantage point, while preparing to draw again.

‘Not again.’ He wouldn’t give another chance to his opponent.

In a burst of speed, he was next to that guy.

The guy, without saying anything else, draws a tanto.

“I don’t get it, man, why sudden hostility?” seeing that reason is not working, he summoned his own sword. Which clashed with the tanto.

“You are good, probably has to do something between your legs,” the enemy complimented? Or insulted, he couldn’t discern it.

“Haaahahahaha! This has to be the most amusing thing anyone said to me since I came back in this village.” And it really was.

But Naruto was not willing to give him any more chances, so with other example of speed, he severed his head, which turned into ink.

‘A clone? Can’t say I am happy about his escape, but it is a good thing. He was wearing a leaf headband, the last thing I want to happen is getting found with a shinobi’s corpse.’ He would never forgive himself if he made such a mistake.

Putting the strange event at the back of his mind, he decided to return back to the task he was doing before this strange occurrence.

‘Is it me? or she hid the house with an illusion.’ Naruto thought, after he managed to move around the area three times.

Suddenly, a door appeared out of nowhere, and Naruto was dragged inside. “Seriously, what would you do if I wasn’t on your side?”


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.  
Clash on the bridge, and the escape of the snake.

(With Naruto.)

Yakumo wakes up with a yawn, after which she gets out of the bed, performs the usual morning rituals, and goes out of her room to make breakfast for herself.

‘How lucky I am, I do no to cook for myself. I bet those other clan children never did that for themselves.’ She thought unhappily.

But unusually this time, she smelled something cooking in her kitchen before she even went there. Cautiously she approaches the kitchen, and enters to find Naruto sitting on the table with a plate of breakfast.

When he saw her entering, he quickly filled another plate and puts it on the table.

“well, that is surprising.”

“why?”

Sitting down to the table, as Naruto fills a glass of juice for her, Yakumo replied, “you don’t strike me as someone who would do such… homely things.”

This brought an amused smile on Naruto’s face, “homely, am I?”

“that, and you need intelligence to cook. Considering you couldn’t even see through the illusion of this house last night…”

“would you let go of it already?” the Jinchuriki sighed.

“never.” Yakumo smiled devilishly.

Naruto just shook his head, in these past two months, he has been living with Yakumo, but since he never lived with her for long periods of time, it took a little while to get used to her personality.

“by the way, today is the day.”

Suddenly, the smile disappeared from Yakumo’s lips. “do be careful, would you? It wouldn’t do if you died when you haven’t even accomplished half of the things you wanted to.”

“I’m not planning to die anytime soon. By the way, get in the contact with Neji. I think he could use your help.”

Yakumo agreed with a nod, and watched as Naruto left her house.

Naruto actually has already gotten late because of making the breakfast for Yakumo and waiting for her to wake up. But considering the events which he is about to kick start, he is not to broken up about it.

Not wanting to encounter any side quests, or more people in general, he took to the roofs and wondered about how civilians don’t seem to mind when Shinobi use their roofs like that.

‘well, why would they when they don’t even know most of the time? Besides, it is hard to object to killers, even if they’re being nice.’

* * *

(In Hokages office.)

Tsunade, Sakura, and an unknown boy, (At least to Sakura,) were waiting for the arrival of one Naruto Uzomaki.

“Damn brat, I knew it was a bad idea to leave him in Kakashi’s care,” Tsunade said, annoyed.

“The scary thing is, he didn’t even spent that much time with Kakashi sensei either.” Sakura replied, perplexed.

“Maybe the virus of tardiness is contagious?” Tsunade questioned no one in particular.

She decided that she has to research about it.

After making them wait ten more minutes, Naruto finally arrived.

“Yo!”

“You are late!” Tsunade and Sakura yelled.

He tries to come up with an excuse, but fails. “So what?” he decided to say flatly.

“Enough.” Tsunade ordered. “Since Kakashi is not fit for a mission, you will be led by a Jonin. I assure you, he is just as strong as Kakashi, if not more.” She told them.

‘More like a leash on my neck.’ Naruto snarked, already knowing why the said Jonin will be there.

“Now, I would like to introduce you to captain Yamato.” Tsunade said.

‘Why? Why that name?’ Naruto couldn’t believe the nerve of some people.

Then, Yamato enters in to the room. Naruto was slightly impressed by the guy; he seems to be quite professional... even if his fate is already decided. Besides, that guy has a bad luck of being a leash on his neck.

“Also for this mission,” Tsunade continued. “You will have a fourth teammate. His name is Sai.” Tsunade introduced the pale teenager who was there with Sakura from the start.

Tsunade expected both Naruto and Sakura to protest, but it was only Sakura who protested.

“Milady, I don’t think that we need a fourth teammate.” Sakura said, trying not to sound childish.

“Is it about your traitorous teammate Sasuke? Then I am glad that I am nothing like him.” Sai retorted.

“You!” the mission wasn’t even started, and her rage has already reached its breaking point.

“Sakura! You will behave like a professional shinobi on this mission! Understood?” Tsunade chastised.

“Y-yes.” Sakura replied, subdued.

“Good.” Then she finally took a look at Naruto’s neck.

‘Well, looks like the secret is out.’ Naruto thought, he still couldn’t believe that it took so long for Tsunade to figure that out, or think about the object in the first place.

“Naruto, why don’t I see my neckless on you?” Tsunade asked, trying not to sound upset, and with some anger.

“She is right, instead, there is a strange shaped neckless, which have a skull. I am surprised that we didn’t realize it yet.” Yamato described the other thing Naruto was wearing.

“First of all,” Naruto replied. “It was not you’re neckless. It was mine; I won that on the bet you had with me.” That statement made Tsunade fume in anger.

“I don’t care about any of that. What did you do with it?” she asked, trying to control her anger.

“Simple, sold it.” he replied, not even afraid of the consequences.

“What!” Tsunade lets out her killing intent. Then she leapt from her chair, and grabbed the boy.

Naruto was expecting a destructive punch, but instead he got a slap.

“You! I in trusted that neckless, along with my hopes to you, and what you did?” she delivered a slap with each sentence she spoke.

He blocked her final slap. “You didn’t. Besides, if you loved that neckless so much, then you shouldn’t have bet that on the first place, especially considering your luck. Besides, what was I supposed to do anyway? Jiraiya took all of my money, and spent it on the drinking.” It wasn’t even a lie!

“All of you, out. Your mission begins in two hours. Yamato, wait for a while.” Tsunade has enough of this ungrateful brat.

“Yes, lady Hokage?” Yamato asked.

“Your mission parameters have changed. If you find any traitorous behavior in him, kill him.” She gave the orders, with some steel in her voice.

“Is this about the neckless? I know it was important to you but,” Yamato tried to understand, but was interrupted in the middle.

“No. it is not. But, his personality changes, they are too wild not to suspect him.” She gave her reasoning.

“I understand.”

“Dismiss.” Having his orders, he left her office.

* * *

(Leaf village exit.)

All four shinobi were ready to leave for their mission… a mission which would change someone’s life, a mission, for someone else’s love, and inspiration for an artist… I can’t do this!

Let’s just assume that they were ready to leave, yeah.

“So, team Yamato, ready?” Yamato asked cheerfully.

“Why team Yamato?” Naruto questioned.

“Well, considering that I am leading this mission, and I am the only Jonin on this squad, I think the name is appropriate.” Yamato gave his reasons.

“Whatever. Look, can we start the mission? I am getting antsy over here.” Sakura said.

“That’s not a good sign.” Sai commented.

“Who asked you?”

“Then let’s go.” Yamato interrupted whatever Sai was about to say.

They all walked out slowly, and continue to walk until they approached a forest. At that point, they started to move at the shinobi speed, jumping through the trees, going through the forest so silently, that if anyone ever would have been there, they would only feel a breeze of air instead of a group of Shinobi.

As the sun started to set, they all arrived in a town. Yamato did booked a room in an in, when Naruto saw something.

‘More chance to cause mischief, and embarrassment for someone, can’t miss that.’ Damn his nature! It makes hard to resist such opportunities.

He was thinking this, because just next to that room in where the remaining two members of team seven, (The one ANBU captain, and one spy,) were spending a night, there was a brothel.

‘But how.’ Then, inspiration struck. ‘Of course! Besides, this will be easy money for someone else, how nice of you Uzomaki, helping someone all the while causing problems for others.’ There should be more nice guys like him in the world, Naruto thought to himself with a nod.

Done with his planning, he enters into that brothel.

* * *

(With Sakura.)

Sakura’s life has taken a different turn lately.

Not that she wasn’t expecting it, in fact, as soon as Naruto’s return, she was expecting that there will be a lot of action, what being trying to fight the people after him. She has asked about this to her teacher Tsunade, but apart from the name of the organization Akatsuki, not much information was given to anyone.

And of course, trying to bring back Sasuke.

In the end, everything comes back to him. But she needed answers.

Answers to why Naruto’s personality is so different now, answers to why he is so cold, specifically towards her.

So she decided to check up on him, and talk to him privately.

* * *

(With Yamato.)

Yamato was quite concerned.

First, the mission was not making much sense. Not to mention, the information he gathered before start of this mission, it just doesn’t match with what he was expecting.

He is not only ordered to observe Naruto Uzomaki, but he is also ordered to eliminate him, if he found any incriminating evidence. Which also doesn’t make much sense?

From what he had gathered about the boy, he is a loyal Shinobi of Leaf, despite his difficult life. After all, if he was supposed to be a traitor, then why his teammate is the one who left the village?

But that was not all. His personality is also quite different. He met before the start of this mission with Kakashi, and he explained the dramatic changes he himself observed.

But they also do not make much sense. People may get jaded sometimes, but they don’t change so dramatically.

Either way, he won’t find anything until this mission is complete, or the boy decides to do anything.

But since he had to observe him, he will spy on him for a while tonight.

Done with his thinking, he started to approach the best point to observe Naruto inside his room.

‘Let’s see what you are hiding, Naruto Uzomaki.’ He continues to think, while trying to find the best spot for spying.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

Naruto was quite giddy, and can’t wait for the night time to arrive.

‘Control yourself, Uzomaki. You wouldn’t want to give away your plan so easily, would you?’ but it was really so hard to control his feelings!

Still, he couldn’t wait. Why won’t the night arrive? Damn it!

* * *

(With Sakura and Yamato.)

Sakura was trying to predict how the conversation with Naruto which she is about to have with him could go, but she saw that the door of his room is closed.

Meanwhile, Yamato was discreetly observing what Naruto was doing, but much to his irritation, he appeared to be just sitting there.

As Sakura got closer and closer to the door of Naruto’s room, she heard strange noises. Some grunting, some pounding, and a woman’s moans.

‘Is he, is he doing what I think he is doing? You’re so dead, Naruto!’ she thought, while her face develops a shade of red.

Yamato himself was not doing any better, first he thought that boy is going to spend his entire time just sitting idle. But then, a woman enters in to the room, started to remove her clothes, and resulting action promptly short circuited Yamato’s brain.

Now, he was an ANBU, he has seen a lot of the things which no normal human could ever sleep at night in peace after seeing, but even he didn’t expected that. That was the sole reason why his brain has to be restarted.

As Sakura finally arrived at the door, she decided to take a look from a key hole. And she saw what Yamato saw; causing her face to become unhealthy shade of red, and she decided not to talk to him tonight.

* * *

(Next day.)

Sakura thought that she had a strange dream last night.

But sadly, she can’t deny the reality of what she saw…

Meanwhile, Yamato barely got some sleep, the incident he saw last night kept him awake.

“This is absurd! Why does that boy’s activity bother me so much?” he muttered to himself.

But Naruto Uzomaki was extremely pleased. What he pulled off last night, it shows he still got it.

He swaggered in the meeting room, which was conveniently Yamato’s room, for their departure. Looking like he doesn’t have any care in the world.

“Why are you so happy today?” Sai asked.

‘Why he has to ask him so directly?’ Sakura thought.

“Well—“before he could answer, he was interrupted by Yamato.

“You know what? Let’s get out of here.” Yamato didn’t want to give Naruto or Sai any chances.

“Yeah.” Sakura agreed wholeheartedly.

“Fine. Fine.” Naruto didn’t mind.

But he couldn’t believe how nicely everything worked out. The plan was simple. First, he convinced one of the women working at the brothel to spend a night with him. When he felt Yamato watching him, and Sakura approaching his room, he casted a Genjutsu, which he had to control enough that both of them wouldn’t notice. Since they thought that he does not have any skill with those kinds of techniques, he didn’t have much problem.

He just added some noises, and some visual effects, and rest of the work their brains did for him.

The best part? He didn’t even have to do anything. He just played some cards with that woman.

The faces of his subordinates next day were worth watching.

‘Yakumo would be amused when she hears about this, assuming she believes that I casted an illusion successfully.’

Really, that girl is so hard to please. so, what if he doesn’t have the same skill with the illusions as her?

* * *

(Next day, at team Yamato’s camp.)

Yamato was finishing one of the speeches, about how leaf shinobi works with their team members, and fight in a team. But Naruto was disagreeing with him.

“Explain to me. All the standard shinobi teams are composed of four shinobi. When they fight, whoever’s team member will manage to beet another team member first will have an advantage, right?” Naruto gave the basic summary of the composition of standard shinobi teams.

“Well, theoretically—“Yamato was interrupted.

“Of course! Theoretically. But as we all know, theory is useless in the shinobi world. Now don’t get me wrong, it is fine to study in your free time if you like to, but really, it doesn’t help much in the field. Besides, the places I have been—“this time, it was Naruto who was interrupted.

“Which places?” Yamato asked shrewdly.

“Places. Anyway, what I was trying to say was, every village trains their shinobi to fight against handicap, so then, why are we so hung up on the teamwork?” Naruto simultaneously avoided Yamato’s question, and asked his own.

No one had an answer.

“A-anyway, let’s move on.” Yamato said uneasily.

But then, some people tried to stop them.

“Stop right there, Uzomaki!” someone said.

Or tried to stop one of them.

“Why me?” Naruto said in annoyance.

“Excuse me,” Yamato interrupted. “Why exactly are you after him?”

“Yeah, you have a Jonin in front of you, and you are going after me?” after all, he was sure Yamato had a nice bounty in his head.

“Yeah, why are you going after him? He is but a lowly Genin.” Sakura couldn’t stop herself. Besides, she still has to do something about his behavior towards her.

“You want to know? Fine. I will have you know that he killed my father!” said the first one, who looked like he was the part of some sort of gang.

“He killed my mother!” the second one stated, he looked like he was part of Yakuza.

“He murdered my family!” the third one said, he was the only one who looked like a shinobi. But what village he belongs to, was not possible to tell, since he was not wearing any headbands.

“You raped my sister!” the fourth one said, horrifying the entire team, (at least Sakura and Yamato, Sai was unaffected.) he also looked like he was a part of gang.

“Whaaaaaat?” Naruto couldn’t believe his ears. He thought that only men who are extremely powerful in both shinobi and political standards have to face such accusations, but apparently it was not true.

He wanted to become so powerful that no one will ever control his life, and he never wanted to be a puppet of someone, or the system itself true. But he wasn’t that powerful enough to face such accusations.

“Naruto I—“

“Sakura, I know I have been behaving not exactly as the same as I used to be,” Yamato couldn’t believe his ears. The boy was admitting about whatever plan he had. “But you have to believe me, I did no such thing!” just like that, Yamato’s hope died a very painful death.

“That is exactly what I am saying; I know you wouldn’t do something like that. But what about those other things?”

“Oh Sakura, you are the greatest teammate anyone can have.” Naruto stated, smiling all the while. But he still didn’t answer her question. ‘Not exactly, but some flattery will be needed.’ He thought.

“And, why are you after him?” Sai asked the fifth one.

“He owes me some money.” The man simply answered.

Everyone looked towards him.

“Jiraiya took my money, damn it!” he blurted out. ‘That’s right; blame it on Jiraiya, not like he hasn’t done something like that anyway.’

“But, what about that guy?” Sakura questioned the fourth one.

“Oh well, since Jiraiya took my money, I have to take some missions. So, I was hired by this guy, who was a noble from court of the feudal lord, who ended up falling in love with another lord’s noble’s sister. Naturally, the noble was not inclined to marry his sister to some other noble of a different country. So he decided to kidnap her, and marry her. The girl was on full agreement by the way. So I help them with that. That is why he is accusing me.” Naruto finished.

“Wow. Never thought that you have to do these kinds of things in your training trip.” Sakura said.

Naruto was very lucky that Tsunade has only told Sakura and Kakashi about his training trip without Jiraiya.

“In any case,” the Yakuza look alike said, “we will kill you here today. It will solve all of our problems.”

“Yeah right. Look, I will give you this chance to left me alone, and run along.” Naruto offered generously.

“Get him!” the first guy exclaimed.

They immediately started to rush him together. One of the guys who looked like they were part of some gangs reached him first. Naruto grabbed one of them, and throws him into the next one who was approaching him fast, making them fall in tangle of limbs.

As soon as the guy who looked like a shinobi reached him close, Naruto’s sword appeared in his hand out of nowhere, and sliced his head in one smooth motion.

“One of you is out. Do you want to give up now?”

“No!” they all exclaimed.

Then their rush began again. Two members of the gangs reached him, and after dodging and sidestepping their attacks for a while, he stabbed them in heart, killing them.

“Still want to go?”

The Yakuza looked alike started to rush him again. Sighing in annoyance, he disappeared in a show of impressive speed, and beheaded him as well.

“Now—“

“Fine, fine, I won’t bother you anymore.” The final man, to whom Naruto owed some money, stated, and started to run in opposite direction.

As this was taking place, Sakura, Sai, and Yamato all observed him.

“Naruto you—“

“Don’t worry Sakura. These kinds of things happen to me a lot. Besides, we should hurry, after all, our spy is waiting.” He said the last part in a whisper.

“Right. Move on, team!”

And they started to approach the heaven and earth bridge again.

* * *

(Before the bridge.)

The team Yamato, (yes, Naruto still doesn’t like those names. Why do they have to make names based on who is leading them?) Was stopped by their captain, he wanted to make sure that he can disguise himself in to Sasori correctly.

To that end, he was asking Naruto to confirm whether his voice sounds just like him or not.

He changed his voice from various pitches, to various volume levels.

“That one!” Naruto chortled in laughter, when he heard such a high pitch voice from Yamato, who was disguise as a puppet which Sasori was known to inhabit.

“Naruto! Take this seriously, would you?” Sakura chided. She found out in her missions with him that he reacts better if she chides him gently, instead of violence as she is known to do.

“Yeah, but you can’t deny that sounds extremely funny. You heard his voice, right?” he asked her, still amused.

“Yeah, now that you mention it…” Sakura couldn’t deny.

But despite all of that, Yamato managed to perfect his voice to sound exactly like Sasori, or the puppet which everyone thinks was used to be Sasori.

“Alright. I will go and meet that spy, and try to gain the information we want. You guys will wait here, in case I need your help. Understand?” he gave his instructions.

“Yes.” All three of them replied.

As Yamato started to wait on the bridge, Naruto, Sai, and Sakura were hiding themselves so they won’t be caught by the spy.

Soon, someone started to approach from the shadows.

As the spy comes into the light, Sakura and Naruto recognized him.

“Kabuto? He was Sasori’s spy?” Sakura said, surprised.

“Well, it doesn’t surprise me.” Naruto said flatly.

“Why?” both Sai and Sakura asked.

“When I was with Jiraiya, trying to find Tsunade, he and Orochimaru also approached her. She refused, and we had a fight, where I perfected Rasengan, and nearly killed him.” Naruto gave his account of fight when he and Jiraiya were trying to find the Hokage.

“So you are saying that you knew that he was a spy for Orochimaru?” Sakura continues to question him.

“Everyone knows that information by this point. Besides, I never thought he would be the spy of Sasori as well.”

Sakura tries to hide that fact that she didn’t know all of that information. She is really feeling out of the loop now.

“Lord Sasori, why did you arrive so early?” Kabuto asked, like a good little subordinate.

“I hate waiting.” Yamato stated, sticking to the information provided by Naruto.

“I understand. When your technique was lifted, I was quite disoriented. Now, what would you like to know? I would ask you to hurry, since slipping from Orochimaru for too long is not possible.”

“Hm. Tell me how is Sasuke Uchiha?” Yamato asked. And also made a mistake in Kabuto’s eyes.

“He is in good condition.” He said, without giving away his thoughts. ‘Really, these leaf ninja’s should do more practice. Why would the real Sasori care about Sasuke?’

Unknown to Kabuto, Naruto was having same thoughts.

“Damn it. I can’t hear anything due to this wind. Can you hear anything, Naruto?” she looks to her left, to find Naruto missing. “Naruto? Where did you go?”

Sai was surprised as well, but he didn’t show it.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Yamato continuously grills Kabuto for information.

“Do you have any bases nearby?”

“Yes. A secret base on an island.” Kabuto answered.

“Is Sasuke Uchiha there?”

“Yes.” Suddenly, he world around, and throws a knife in to the bushes, to find a rabbit. “Maybe I am too paranoid.” ‘You will have to hide better, lord Orochimaru.’

“Next, I would like you to give me all the information about your hidden bases all over the elemental nations.”

But before Kabuto can answer, a voice hissed at them.

“My, my, I decided to find where Kabuto has disappeared off to, and look what I found.” Orochimaru stated, walking out of the shadows.

He tries to kill Yamato, but he replaced himself with a wood statue.

“So, that wasn’t real Sasori after all.” Kabuto said, a little bit surprised.

“You never saw his real form?” Orochimaru questioned.

“No one saw his real form. He was always inside one puppet or another.” Kabuto answered.

“But, what kind of replacement is that? I don’t think there are any wood statues nearby.” He said, looking at the statue in fascination.

“Oh that? It is the result of my experiments which I performed long time ago.” Orochimaru explained, in a nostalgic tone.

* * *

(With the party which had a girl as its member.)

‘Phew. Nearly died there.’ Yamato thought. “Where is Naruto?” he questioned.

“We don’t know. He disappeared in the middle of your interrogation.” Sai explained.

“Damn it.” Yamato said, softly.

“Now, come out, you three. Did you really think you could escape from me?” Orochimaru stated from the bridge.

“Crap.” All three of them said.

As they all managed to get themselves composed and get out of their hiding place, with a defense formation no less, Yamato was hoping that he missed Naruto.

“But when I arrived, there were three hidden, and one Jonin in front of me,” Kabuto told Orochimaru.

“So I missed one? Come out come out, wherever you are,” he said in a singsong voice, also very amused.

“Right behind you.” Someone stated right above his shoulder, extremely serious in comparison to Orochimaru’s amusement.

His eyes widened at the limit, and he tries to punch where that voice comes from.

“Don’t you know it is bad manners to attack someone when you met them after several years?”

“Uzomaki!” he hissed. “Why are you here?”

Naruto started to sob. “Sob, sob, where your usual greeting is? “Kukuku, hello Naruto.””

Everyone (Except Orochimaru and Naruto,) experienced a whiplash from such a mood shift, as well as expression of “did I heard this correctly?” was present on their faces.

But Orochimaru was no longer amused. Instead, he was scowling quite harshly. “I said why you are here, Uzomaki?”

“Oh come on, forget all that serious business. Here. Give me a hug.” Naruto spreads his arms wide in invitation.

Orochimaru tried to control his rage, and he was succeeding, if barely. “Why are you here with them?” he pointed towards the team of leaf ninja, in case it was not clear to Naruto what he was asking.

“What? don’t tell me you’re jealous? Didn’t you dump me for that Uchiha?” he smirked. “But for the sake of old time, I am yours today.” Then he got a gleam on his eyes. “At least tell me how is he in bed?”

“Good,” then, Orochimaru was horrified from just what exactly he admitted. And he couldn’t even say anything in return, no one will believe him. So he continues to fume in silence.

“Sob, how, sob, how could you ignore me like that?”

“Enough!” Orochimaru was completely enraged. “Why are you here with the leaf shinobi?” why won’t that brat give him a straight answer!

“You see, I am this loyal shinobi, who have a mission to bring back that boyfriend of yours, name Sasuke Uchiha.” Naruto answered with a straight face.

The last statement amused him so much, that he forgot his earlier irritation. “Hahahahahahahaha! You? A loyal shinobi? Hahahaha! You are just as much as a leaf shinobi as much as I am!” Orochimaru refused to believe him.

Yamato couldn’t help but narrow his eyes at that statement.

“Shut up! I will rescue Sasuke, and I will develop a technique which will turn me into a woman, and we will resurrect his clan again!” then his smirk widened. “You could join as well.” Sakura was really disturbed after hearing that statement.

“Shut up Uzomaki! You know I won’t give him back.” Then he removes the sword of Kusanagi from his mouth.

“Come on! Don’t be like this?” then he puts his one hand behind his back, making Orochimaru tense. But the only thing he brought out was a cup of tea, making Sakura think about where exactly did he kept it? “We can still make up our relationship.” then he pushed down his sunglasses, and glared at Orochimaru with red eyes. “Just give me what I want.” His tone dropped several octaves with the last statement.

Thankfully, no one saw his red eyes other than Orochimaru. But his change in mood gave them another whiplash. Just now, he was talking about rather disturbing relationship, and now, he is demanding something from Orochimaru? Yamato feels that he had a lot of things to put on that report.

Orochimaru cannot believe his ears. Uzomaki was demanding something from him, and he knew it was not Uchiha.

Problem is, he knew what exactly he wants, and he will not give him that thing. “Never!” he took a battle stance.

“Fine then.” Naruto said in the same serious tone, and drank his tea, throwing the cup aside where it shattered into pieces. “You will give me what I want, whether you like it, or not.” He stretched one hand in front of him, and with a swirl, summoned his sword. “It will be more amusing that way. Hahahaha!”

Orochimaru prepared to fight, and started to give orders to Kabuto. “Kabuto!”

“Yes, lord Orochimaru?”

“Kill the cannon fodder. I will try to stall Uzomaki, but I won’t be able to do that for long, especially in my current state.”

“Understood.” With his orders cleared, Kabuto attacked Yamato, seeing him as the biggest threat.

“So, it is kind of crowded here, wouldn’t you be happy if we have the entire place to ourselves?” Naruto smirked, and jumped to find another place to battle.

Orochimaru jumped after him, scowling heavily.

‘He thinks he can take Orochimaru alone? But why Orochimaru thinks that he can’t take him on? Still, I can’t leave him alone.’ He finally decided to make an action. “Sai, go help him!” Yamato ordered, while avoiding Kabuto’s strikes.

“Understood.” Sai nodded. And started to follow Naruto and Orochimaru. ‘Excellent. Time for my real mission.’

* * *

(Nearby, soon to be destroyed field.)

Orochimaru and Naruto were standing opposite to each other, swords in hand, with a dramatic wind flowing over both of them.

Naruto took a deep breath. “Ah, what a nice fresh air,” he commented. He was back to his amused mood.

“Enough talking Uzomaki!” Orochimaru finally reached his limit.

“Why so angry? I thought you liked to monologue.” Naruto questioned with a smirk.

‘Damn him! He knows that I am becoming weaker by the second, so he is stalling for time. I must finish this quickly.’ With that thought, Orochimaru lunged at still smirking Naruto, prepared to stab him with Kusanagi. But just before the sword could make contact with him, he disappeared in a flash of gold, which was in a shape of an eagle.

‘Why it is in a shape of an eagle?’ then Orochimaru controlled himself. ‘Don’t get distracted.’

“Looking for someone?” Naruto asked in an amused tone, resting one elbow right above snake Sannins shoulder.

Not even giving him a chance, he tries to slice him but fails again.

He disappeared and reappeared in front of his opponent. “Come on, can’t you do better than this?” he continue to taunt him.

Orochimaru tries to slash him again, but this time, instead of disappearing like earlier, he simply sidestepped his attack. Enraged, Orochimaru tries to slash him in a flurry of sword strikes, but Naruto dodged each and every one of them.

“How are you doing this?” Orochimaru couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and experiencing.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I am talking about how you continue to dodge my sword slashes!” he asked him with a growl.

“Simple really. For all of your talent as a scientist, and with ninjutsu, you are a pretty sloppy swordsman. Didn’t I told you the same thing when I tried to retrieve that ring from you?” Naruto gave his brutal analysis.

Orochimaru’s eyes widened for the second time that day. He shuttered after remembering that day, when Kabuto and himself were ambushed by a strange flaming murder of crows, and barely escaped with their lives, while his important research was ruined along with his lab.

“Yes, you’re sword is good. But all you do is just lunge at people, hoping they won’t be able to dodge and block. Well, I have news for you. You aren’t that fast. Hmhmhmhm.” Naruto chuckled, mistaking Orochimaru’s reaction as anger, knowing that the scientist doesn’t like to be insulted regarding his skills.

After saying that, Naruto lunged at Orochimaru himself, zigzagging and dodging his frantic strikes, and with an upward slash, battered the Kusanagi away.

“Idiot. If you can’t use a sword, why would you even bother?” with that, he continue to move forward, fully intending to take the advantage of the opening. “Take this!” with that, he slashed Orochimaru horizontally.

“You really shouldn’t challenge me for a sword fight. Specially—“words died in his throat, when he observed Orochimaru.

There was a hand coming out of his mouth, and soon, a body crawled out of it.

“Damn! Every time I see something like that, my erection dies for an entire week!” suddenly, a warning flashed on the screen, about how no one should make such statements in public, since children may hear them.

Recovered completely, Orochimaru prepared to fight again, grabbing his sword. “I am not done yet!”

“Of course you’re not. It is never that simple.” But he really wished it was that simple.

Naruto disappeared with his technique again, and tried to strike from Orochimaru’s left side. But his years of experience allowed him to escape, by putting his sword in the path of Naruto’s strike. Then, he back flipped again to gain some space.

“No!”

But Naruto disappeared again, and reappeared in the Sanin’s soon to be landing spot.

“Nicely said.” With a 360 degree slash, Orochimaru was cut in half again.

But Naruto didn’t let his attention wonder off, because he knew that Roachimaru will not die so easily. Soon, true to his prediction, some snakes appeared from his body, and joined his upper and lower parts, making him complete again.

“I am sure someone is annoyed right now; I know because that someone is me!” Naruto said, some frustration leaking in his voice.

Ignoring what Naruto was rambling, Orochimaru grabbed his sword again. But this time, he didn’t lunged at him, instead, he opens his mouth wide, and several snakes came out of it.

“You know, I am happy that there aren’t any kids around. They will creep out by your techniques.” Naruto said, mildly disturbed himself. Why would someone hide so many snakes inside their body?

He disappeared in a burst of speed, without his technique, and crouched behind Orochimaru. “But they would love my techniques! Silver slash!” with that, he started to rush at the snakes, silver blades trailing behind him.

“It was fun while it lasted, but alas, you can only live for so long.” With that statement, Orochimaru was cut in several pieces, in various sizes.

“Now, to complete my mission..... What the hell!” he saw where Orochimaru’s body was supposed to be, and only saw some sliced snakes.

“I am having a sudden urge to strangle someone.”

* * *

(In real world.)

A man was writing a book, he appears to be working hard, but for no reason at all, he feels something.

“I think someone wants to strangle me. Why?”

* * *

(Back to the plot.)

At the edge of the field where this spectacular bout was taking place, for which no promotion was done, no tickets were sold; Sai was hiding and observing Naruto.

‘So this is his strength? Lord Danzo will be concerned,’ looks like everyone underestimated him so much.

* * *

(Heaven and Earth Bridge.)

Yamato and Kabuto were engaged in a close quarters combat, Sakura was trying to find an opening to assist Yamato.

“You were supposed to be Sasori’s spy! Then how come you are still working for Orochimaru?” Yamato asked, while dodging chakra scalpel strikes.

“Easy. Do you really think that Orochimaru wouldn’t notice something like that? He lifted that technique a long time ago.” He answered.

“Then what about Orochimaru’s concern regarding Naruto? At their power gap, he shouldn’t be concern about him.”

“You really don’t know, do you?” Kabuto asked in a condescending tone.

“No what?”

“I really don’t feel like telling you.” Frustrated, Yamato started to rush him, Kabuto also started to rush him. But they both stopped, because a cloud of smoke appeared in the place of Orochimaru’s and Naruto’s battle field.

‘This is bad; I must finish this fight quickly.’ Both Kabuto and Yamato thought.

* * *

(With Naruto and Orochimaru.)

“Orochimaru! How dare you summon me here? Without 100 sacrifices! Do you know the punishment for that?” Manda boomed in anger.

On the ground, Naruto grinned. “Hello little Manda, did you forget what I did to you already?”

‘That voice,’ Manda thought, and looked down. “You!” his sudden shift of rage surprised Orochimaru. But didn’t even affect Naruto. “Orochimaru, for this once, I will not demand sacrifices for killing him.”

“Great!” he can’t believe his luck. Whatever he has done with Manda, it is going to cost him big time now.

With that out of the way, Manda slithered quite fast for the creature of his size, but Naruto disappeared in a flash of gold before he could even touch him.

“Stand still, and fight!” Manda ordered.

“Whatever you say,” someone said right below his jaw.

“What?” Manda was surprised; he wasn’t able to recover quick enough to avoid a silver slash, which cut his head off.

When Naruto got out of the ground, he observed instead of a body, it was just a snake skin. “This skin thing is annoying me to no end! And—“he was not allowed to finish, because,

“I’ve got you now!” Manda lashed out right behind him.

“Oopsy daisy!” that was the only time for Naruto to say something, after that Manda’s jaws crunched around his body.

And he didn’t even use the crunch, the dark type move...

“Did you have him, Manda?” asked Orochimaru, who was kneeling on one knee on the top of boss snake’s body.

“Got who?” asked Naruto, resting his elbow right on Orochimaru’s shoulder like earlier.

“You! Get off me!” Manda became berserk like a bull, wanting to shake the unwanted rider.

“As you wish.” Jumping down, he faced both of his opponents. ‘I know that spy is watching me right now, but I do not think it is going to impact me in long term.’ immediately, fire started to surround Naruto’s body, with a symbol for fire appearing on his head.

“Be prepared to get fried!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Orochimaru!”

“I know! Summoning: Rashomon!” three gates with demon faces appeared.

“That is not going to work. You’re gonna get blasted off!” then five blasts of fire appeared around his body, when he fired the attack, they all started to track both the snake boss and his summoner. “Fire blast!”

Boooooom!

A large explosion happens, making nearby trees fall and making trees which were far enough to avoid falling down shake hard.

At the edge of the field, Sai couldn’t believe what he was observing. ‘I must find cover,’ he jumped away.

* * *

(With Yamato and Sakura.)

“What exactly was that?”

Already known what exactly happened, Kabuto took advantage of Yamato’s distracted state and hit one of his legs with his chakra scalpel.

“No!” he couldn’t believe he allowed such a rookie mistake!

“It was quite fun to annoy you. Goodbye!” then, he jumped away in the direction of the battle field of Orochimaru and Naruto. ‘But he was able to take out rashomon like that; it is one more reason…’

* * *

(On the destroyed field.)

After the explosion, Naruto started to observe his handiwork. The gates proved to be completely ineffective against his attack; Orochimaru was lying down on the ground, covered with extremely painful burns. Manda himself was experiencing some third degree burns.

“Am I good or am I good.” He slowly started to reduce the distance between himself and Orochimaru.

“Mark my words boy, you won’t be getting away with this,” after telling him that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“If I received money after hearing final verdicts like that, I will be millionaire. Wait, I already am! Hahaha!” he finally towered over Orochimaru’s body. “Stop playing dead, you human snake thing!” he kicked him right on his ribs. “I know you won’t die so easily.” Then he pointed the blade of his sword towards his throat. “I know you fear death, so I will make you face your fears. Aren’t I good?”

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” he opened his eyes, and coughed some blood. “You know you can’t kill me.”

“It is sad that you know me to that extent. Fine, but this was the last time I have to spare you.” He dismissed his sword, and disappeared in another flash of gold.

“Lord Orochimaru, are you okay?” Kabuto landed close to him.

“Kabuto, right now, I was just crushed in a battle, and this body is rejecting me. So, to answer your question, no, I am not okay.”

Kabuto tried to treat his wounds, but the Sanin interrupted him. “But first, we must welcome our guest,”

Kabuto saw Sai walking out of the shadows. “Hm. How peculiar.” He knew from which organization the said guest belongs to.

* * *

(On the bridge.)

Naruto landed close to Sakura. “What happened?”

“Kabuto got away.” She answered, focused on healing Yamato’s leg.

“Better yet, what happened with you?” Yamato questioned.

“Simple. Orochimaru gave me the slip.” Naruto answered smoothly.

“This is not the answer, and you know it!” Yamato scowled.

“But that is true.” He whined.

“Fine. Then what was that technique?” he continues to ask the questions.

“Which one? There were several of them,” Naruto stated.

“With that big explosion.” Yamato clarified.

Naruto brought an unhappy look on his face. “It was Orochimaru’s technique.” It was a perfect excuse.

“And where is Sai?” Yamato asked his final question.

“When smoke cleared, Sai and Orochimaru were nowhere to be found.”

“Then Sai must have betrayed us. At least we got his base locations.”

“Great then.” He sat down on a rock.

“After I am healed, we will go after Sai and Orochimaru. He has a base nearby. And Naruto?”

“What?”

“Don’t fight Orochimaru alone again.”

“Fine. Next time, you will fight him.”

“Damn it!”

(End.)

Author’s notes:

Nothing to see here, move on…


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10.  
Plan executed, beginning of new quest.

(On the Heaven and earth bridge.)

Naruto continues to wait for Yamato to get healed, all the while, the plans he had for himself working in his head.

He had to admit to himself, he is seriously getting restless as time goes by.

“Naruto?” Yamato asked, still getting healed by Sakura.

“Yes?” Naruto replied.

“Did you saw Sai with Orochimaru?” Yamato asked.

“No. but during my entire battle, not once he came for my assistance.” Naruto answered.

“He must have betrayed us then. No matter. We have the location of Orochimaru’s nearby base, that is where Uchiha is, and he most likely will try to evacuate the base as soon as possible.” Yamato said.

“True.” Sakura and Naruto said in agreement.

“But we still have some chance of success. We just have to arrive there in time; we will find all of our targets there.” Yamato continues to explain his plan.

“Again, true.”

“And Naruto?” Yamato’s tone changed again.

“What?” he already knew what the Jonin was about to say.

“Don’t try to run off alone again, understand?” he ordered sternly.

‘Must control myself,’ repeating this thought in his mind, he replied, “I understand.”

* * *

(Sometime later.)

“There, captain. Your leg is completely healed now.” Sakura announced cheerfully.

Yamato flexes his leg experimentally. “Great. Now, let us go to the base then.”

“Yes!” both of his subordinates agreed.

* * *

(Outside, Orochimaru’s base.)

“So, I have scouted this base with my wood clone before we arrived here, and we can’t enter and hope to succeed.” Yamato tried to explain his great plan.

“Then what did you thought?” Naruto asked sarcastically.

“Here’s the plan. We will have to separated and go inside.” Yamato winced. ‘That didn’t sound as great as in my head.’

“Wait, you want to split the team, and go inside the base of the enemy, which probably can take out multiple fighters?” Naruto asked incredulously.

“Oh? What would you suggest then?” Yamato tried to hide behind a calm mask.

“I think we should return, and come back later. Preferably with an elite Jonin squad.” Naruto explained his more reasonable plan.

“But by then, Orochimaru will change his base.” Yamato tried to poke some holes in his plan.

“True, but as it is now, we will have to face a lot of opponents there.” Naruto patched the said wholes.

“Wait, Orochimaru and Kabuto are obvious, but who could we have to face inside?” Sakura asked in confusion.

“Well, let me explain it in more detail then. Kabuto can easily fight on par with a Jonin. Orochimaru can also take multiple Jonin easily. And I have to remind you, we have only one Jonin.” Naruto explain to Sakura the problem in more detail.

“But wait.” Yamato tried to say something more, but was interrupted by Naruto.

“I was not done.” Seeing everyone listening again, he started to explain further. “Sasuke will not come with us by his own will, and who knows what kinds of plans Sai have.” He finished.

“Why do you think Sasuke won’t come with us willingly?” Sakura asked.

Sometimes, Naruto can never understand how that girl can be considered smart, and remain so oblivious at the same time. It was infuriating.

“Sakura, last time I tried to bring him back, he broke my neck, and put a hole in my chest. Or did you forget in your tunnel vision?” Naruto snarked.

Sakura couldn’t say anything. After all, she did saw his injuries.

“But we can act as a scout team. We will map the general structure of this base, and then we can compare them to his previous bases in our records. It will open up possibilities for us to attack his more secure bases.” Yamato knew what exactly is going to happen, but he was not willing to walk away from this place now.

“This is not going to end well; I just know it.” Naruto sighed. ‘Well, at least for you.’ he added in his head.

“Here are some final instructions. Do not in any circumstances engage Orochimaru alone, and try to capture Sai alive. Understand?” Yamato gave his instructions, while ignoring Naruto’s comment.

“And if we couldn’t capture him?” Sakura asked.

“Then kill him.” Yamato stated bluntly.

“You have your orders, disperse!”

* * *

(Inside the base.)

Sakura was checking out all the rooms of the area of base she was in, yet she can’t find a single clew to where Sasuke is.

“Not here,” she opened a door, and seeing an empty room, closed it again.

“Not here,” she repeated the same process.

“Not here!” again, same thing, but she is getting more frantic now.

“Where— “

She was cut in the middle of her rant about the base, due to a sudden explosion.

* * *

(With Orochimaru.)

After escaping from Uzomaki, an extremely tense group arrived on Orochimaru’s base.

“Now, both of you stop right there.” Orochimaru halted them just outside of the base.

“Why?” Sai asked, not appreciating such an abrupt stop.

“I must find whether you two have any seals placed on you or not.” Orochimaru explained.

After searching them to his satisfaction, he led both Sai and Kabuto inside his base. They arrived in a room which contains a statue of a coiled snake, and a shadow of a person can be scene sitting underneath it.

“You’re late,” the shadow said.

“You can blame your leaf village friends for that. You know that they are after you?” Orochimaru stated.

“Let them come then. I will show them the futility of their efforts, as they are lying down broken and beaten.” Sasuke stated, and left.

“That boy’s arrogance will be death of him one day.” Orochimaru said.

“It would appear that death will arrive soon. Uzomaki will not show him any mercy.” Kabuto replied.

“As long as we can send him back, it wouldn’t matter much. Now, I have something to do.” Orochimaru stated, and he also left.

Sai, seeing this as a great chance to complete his real mission, started to follow the path Sasuke took few moments ago.

* * *

(With Yamato.)

The ANBU silently appeared from the wall with the help of his wood release.

‘Truly, it is very important for shinobi to learn the importance of silence. Now, if only the academy would do what it was supposed to, train shinobi correctly!’ Yamato ranted in his head.

But then, he had to stop himself.

“Hello my dear experiment.” Because of an amused voice hissed right behind him.

“Oh joy.” Proving that ANBU training is clearly superior to normal training of the normal shinobi, he struck before Orochimaru could do anything else.

Sadly for him, Orochimaru was also not an average shinobi.

“Do you honestly thought that you would be able to take me out?” he asked, still amused.

“No… but I have to try.” Yamato stated.

“The nerve of some people.” Really! Coming in his base, and trying to arrest him. Back in his day— ‘Better stop that thought process.’

“Answer me, where is Sasuke?” Yamato tried to project his firm resolve.

“What makes you think that you can demand answers from me? Better yet, tell me where that damn Uzomaki is?” Orochimaru asked.

“I don’t understand why are you getting so worried regarding him, but we separated.” Yamato told Orochimaru.

‘They split, that means Uzomaki is alone in my base, along with Sasuke. I cannot allow this! I must finish him quickly.’ He thought frantically.

“Shadow snake strike!”

Yamato seeing the danger promptly replaced himself with a wood statue.

Orochimaru clucked his Tung. “More wood techniques?”

The word “technique” brought another question in Yamato’s mind.

“On the bridge, why did you use such a flashy technique? You could have escaped with a lot of more efficient techniques.” Yamato asked curiously.

“Wait, he told you that it was my technique?” Orochimaru asked.

“Yes.” Yamato said simply.

“Clever.” Orochimaru stated in grudging respect.

“But he stated that it was you who used that technique.” Yamato was now confused.

“What? Don’t tell me you do not understand? It would have been easiest to slip the blame on me. You know, to avoid unnecessary questions.” Orochimaru explained.

Just as he was done explaining that, a large explosion took place.

“What was that?” Yamato asked in surprise.

“Sasuke is throwing one of his tantrums again.” Not wanting to waist his time anymore, he attacked the distracted Jonin.

(With Sakura and Yamato.)

Sakura ran with all her strength. She was almost sure, no! Completely sure that the location of that explosion will have for what she has come here.

She arrived to see an entire room in ruins, and above all that destruction, was the face which she hasn’t seen for three years now.

She also saw Sai standing down just next to the destroyed room, with some sort of understanding look on his face.

“Sai!” she yelled. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” though his voice didn’t waver, his eyes were different things entirely.

“Weren’t you suppose to kill him?” she questioned further.

“Yes.” He answered flatly.

“Then what are you doing now?”

“You, Sakura and Naruto, have shown me something. Something which I thought I will never need.” Sai started to explain.

“Oh?”

“My mission was to assassinate Sasuke, yes. But I finally understood how important he is to both of you. That is why; I decided not to follow my orders.”

“Is that, Sakura?” Sasuke questioned coldly.

Sakura shivered. There was no warmth in that voice.

Then, without any warning, Sasuke moved and grabbed Sakura from her neck.

“You really shouldn’t have come here, Sakura. I thought you were smarter than that.” Not really, but she didn’t need to know that.

She tried, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t shake his grip.

‘Damn it! Was my training all useless? When I need it most, it always becomes so useless!’

Then, Orochimaru appeared out of nowhere, avoiding some wood projectiles.

“Would you stop hounding me!” he exclaimed in annoyance.

“Surrender!” Yamato exclaimed in righteous fury.

“Never!” Orochimaru retaliated in pure evil.

Then, Naruto arrived. “Huff! Made it!”

“Naruto, is that you?” Sasuke questioned, still no sign of any happiness in his voice.

Naruto shivered. But for entirely different reasons from Sakura.

‘He sounds like he missed me, but was not trying to show. It is quite disturbing if you ask me.’

“Didn’t you want to be Hokage, Naruto? I spared your life that day, so you can fulfill your dream. But if you are going to waste my kindness like that,” he released Sakura, making her hit the floor, and appeared in front of Naruto. “Then I will retract my kindness.” He grabbed him and started to choke him, just like Sakura.

‘Really?’ Naruto connected with a kick right on his stomach.

Sasuke let go of him, very reluctantly.

“It would appear you have made some progress towards your dream. Good.”

Then, seeing Sasuke was distracted with both of his old replacement, Sai took the chance to attack.

But Sasuke blocked his tanto strike with his own sword. He started to channel electricity in his sword. Recognizing what was happening, Sai quickly let go of his tanto.

“Great choice of defense,” he streamed his lightning chakra across the ground, shocking Sai. “Or not so great after all.”

“So, this is my replacement? I am disappointed.” Sasuke said.

‘Stop whining! We all know how you feel already. Still, I must get his attention; otherwise the plan will go to hell really fast.’ Naruto thought.

Naruto grabbed a kunai knife from his pouch, and throws it right on Sasuke’s face, missing by few inches.

“So, where is your stalker?” Sasuke dodged the knife, and asked suddenly.

“Don’t know. I think I broke her.” Naruto told him cheerfully.

“And you couldn’t do same with my stalker as well?” Sasuke’s said, in a very cold tone. Not that it made any difference…

“To be honest, yours has a fiery temper. And she is really not shy about showing it.” Naruto said.

“And you still haven’t improved your aim. How dare you come after me with such pathetic skills?” Sasuke finally got on the point.

Sasuke’s Sharingan started to spin, and he glared at Naruto.

‘Yes, perfect. Come on, stair in to my eyes, and put the final nail in your future coffin!’ Naruto cackled in his mind.

“Maybe I finally have to teach you the consequences of your decisions,” with little bit more force, Sasuke pushed his mind inside Naruto’s mind. “After all, I fought besides you once. Can’t let you insult me with your pathetic skills like that.”

* * *

(Inside the mindscape.)

The beast known as nine tailed fox awoke from his sleep. He spends most of his time sleeping, since his jailer’s life doesn’t interest him much.

Except in some instances… like now, for example.

Then Naruto arrived there as well, standing just besides his cage like a statue.

“So, decided to pay me a visit?” the beast decided to goad him.

Naruto didn’t say anything.

“Why did you change the mindscape? I really liked the previous setting.” There were quite nice forests as well.

Still nothing.

“So, do you need my power?” he continues to ask questions, still trying to goad him.

No change in expressions.

“Come on boy, you know I can give you whatever amount you want, no matter how much you want.” He was kind of getting desperate.

With that declaration, the chakra of the beast started to seep from the cage slowly.

“Just tell me, who is to be killed.” Finally! Maybe that boy will take his chance, and give him a chance...

Still nothing. Not even a twitch.

“Say something, damn it!” the fox lost his patience.

Then, another person arrived in the mindscape.

“So, this is the source of your power?” Sasuke asked.

“As if. We both know I don’t need him.” Naruto retorted.

“Still, you did use it a lot in our last fight.” He remarked.

“Well, it lives in my body. So, by that logic, yes. It is part of my skills.” Naruto tried to justify himself...... unsuccessfully.

“Ah. Sharingan. How much I hate those cursed eyes. Why, it is my dream to tear them out of the sockets of their users.” The Fox interrupted their conversation.

“So. You have seen in to these eyes before, there is no doubt about it. You are nine tailed fox.” Sasuke said, quite dramatically.

“And here come dramatic statements. You could have just counted his tails, and would be able to recognize him still.” Naruto snarked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sasuke really didn’t like such a secret kept from him.

“What was I supposed to say? Besides. You already have your issues to deal with.” Naruto replied.

“Still.” Sasuke continues to insist.

“You can thank the fourth for my problem.” Naruto said, flatly.

“Tell me boy, have you ever heard the name Madara?” the Fox interrupted their conversation again.

Sasuke started to push the chakra construct in to the cage.

“Never heard of him. Am I supposed to care?”

“Foolish boy. Doesn’t even have an idea what kinds of things are in your future.” With his chakra gone in to the cage, the fox became silent.

“Ah, thank you Uchiha. You helped my plan to its completion.” Naruto said, quite gladly.

After that confusing statement, Naruto ran inside of the cage. Sasuke couldn’t even stop him.

“What-what are you doing? Boy! Get away from me!” from inside the cage, the nine-tail fox yelled in surprise, and rage.

“Give me what I want.” Another voice stated, unlike the beast, this one was quite firm.

“Soul Extraction!”

“Nooooooooooooooo!”

Then, a horrible noise started to come from the cage. It was like a rusty door which has been not opened for thousands of years suddenly forced open. Or a beast which has been chained for thousands of years, but someone was now trying to rip those chains.

Then, with sudden surge of power, Sasuke was thrown out of the mindscape.

‘maybe I should have paid more attention?’ were the last thoughts of the Kurama the nine-tail fox.

* * *

(Outside of the mindscape, in Orochimaru’s base.)

(Soundtrack: dragon ball z ultimate tenkaichi: evil desires.)

Sasuke stumbled. He didn’t expected to be thrown off like that.

Meanwhile, Yamato and Orochimaru have stopped fighting, because they were busy observing Naruto. One in complete horror and one in surprise.

Whatever he has done, it has created a black shroud of demonic energy around his entire body. The shroud was increasing in size, as well as in power. The output of power was so much that it created a crater within the ground where the teenager was standing.

“Naruto! Stop this at once! Control yourself!” Yamato tried to reason with him. But when the reasoning didn’t work, he ordered him. “Naruto! As a captain of your squad, I order you to control yourself.”

But his valiant efforts to get control of his subordinate were mocked by Orochimaru’s laughter. “You honestly think that you can order him around? Either you are more foolish than I thought, or the standards of shinobi continue to fall down. Kukukuku!”

Ignoring the snake, Yamato tried to contain him with his wood release. He tried to suppress the demonic chakra with the kanji of sit, trying to absorb the chakra through his technique. When that failed, he tried to contain the boy within a cage made of wood. But he simply destroyed the cage.

Soon, the shroud disappeared. To reveal Naruto Uzomaki, on his demonic glory.

Actually, his appearance remained same. Black shirt, black pants, sunglasses, but his whiskers marks from his cheeks disappeared. His eye color also changed. Instead of his usual blue eyes, they turned in to gold color.

“Finally,” he said.

Everyone shivered. That tone was not sounding promising at all...

“After back breaking training, all the research and setbacks, many near death experiences, and perhaps three of them most likely returning from death, avoiding suspicion, all the humiliation, I finally have what I wanted!” Naruto gave his speech of power.

“Though the power output was rather more than I expected.” He stated, while looking around the destruction caused by his transformation.

But then, Yamato jumped into the crater in which Naruto was standing.

“Naruto, this is your final warning. Control your power!” he ordered.

“Control myself? You do realize that in this entire time, I am in control of myself?” Naruto asked, sarcastically.

“Whatever the case maybe. You have to answer some questions— “Yamato was interrupted in the middle.

“And if I don’t?” Naruto said, his tone telling danger.

“Then I will assume that you have betrayed the village Hidden in the leaves, and take appropriate actions.” Yamato gave his verdict.

“Hmhmhm. Then I will not answer the single question you have.” Naruto told him.

“Naruto Uzomaki, by the order of the Hokage, you are guilty of turning in to the missing nin.” Yamato said, imperiously.

“No!” Sakura yelled, she barely got over one shock, and now was in another shock.

“Your punishment is death.” He finished.

“Well, you first.” Naruto said, while bringing his right hand forward, creating a ball of energy on his index finger.

Before Yamato could react with such a strange technique, Naruto fired the beam with a precise mark on Yamato’s forehead, making a whole appear in front and back of his head. He twitched few times and then fell down, dead.

This time, Sakura’s shock was more along the line of mute horror; she couldn’t even make her throat work.

“Orochimaru, where exactly Naruto is? And why that Jonin suddenly have a whole in his head?” Sasuke asked in confusion.

Orochimaru turned to Sasuke sharply. “What do you mean? He is standing right there.”

“Where?” he asked, still not seeing him.

Orochimaru took a look at Sasuke’s eyes. “Turn off your Sharingan.”

Sasuke did so, and gasped in shock. “I can’t see him with my Sharingan.” To confirm this, he briefly turned them on, much to his shock and horror, he was completely right.

‘There go my future plans.’ Orochimaru can’t believe this. “Well damn,”

“What?” Sai asked.

“Not important right now.”

“And now to celebrate my success,” he looked up to the people gathered at the crater’s side.

“Loser. You couldn’t beat me then; you can’t defeat me now.” Sasuke sneered.

He jumped down to fight him.

“Shouldn’t we stop him?” Kabuto asked in concern.

“No. let him taste the real world.” Orochimaru replied, no longer caring about what happens to Uchiha.

Naruto didn’t give any chances to Sasuke, and immediately punched him right on his face, sending him flying to the wall of crater.

He walked up to Uchiha, and grabbed his neck with one hand. In another hand, a claw like glove appeared.

“Orochimaru, you know why I am here. Give me what I want, and maybe I will spare his life.” Naruto gave his ultimatum.

He loves giving ultimatums.

‘What!’ Orochimaru thought furiously. Then an idea struck him. “But you can’t kill him just yet, now can you?”

Naruto was annoyed that Orochimaru knows about his problem. But well, there are other ways. “True. But I need him alive. It doesn’t mean that I need his eyes though, and considering there are only two Uchihas in the world, these eyes are quite valuable, wouldn’t you say?” then Naruto started to bring his other hand closer and closer to Sasuke’s eyes. “Come on! Give me that thing already.”

Seeing his glove just few inches away from Sasuke’s eyes, ‘I don’t have a choice anymore.’ Orochimaru thought. But before he could do anything, Naruto was forced to let go of Sasuke, due to sudden pain in his head. Naruto started to clutch his head.

“What?” he grabbed his head in surprise and pain? “What’s happening? Arg! What? No!” Sasuke was able to get away from where he fell from Naruto’s grip. He tried to attack him once again, but Naruto didn’t give him any chances this time either. He wanted to kick him, but his balance was off. So, he hit him with next best thing.

Sasuke received a brutal knee strike right on his chin, sending him flying once again.

Soon, the glove covering Naruto’s hand also disappeared.

“Why now? Everything was going so smoothly!” then, as if Naruto lost control of his power, another shroud appeared. “Noooo!” not wanting to give any advantages to his enemies, he disappeared in an explosion of water? ‘Hmmm. Have to think about it later.’ Was his last conscious thought.

After he disappeared, Orochimaru and Sakura both regrouped.

“Sai, what can we do now?” her question was answered by the voice behind her.

“Girl, we need to talk.” The voice hissed.

She jumped away reflexively. “About what?”

“Why, your teammate of course!”

“But where did Sasuke— “in the middle of the confusion, Sasuke escaped, despite being hurt.

“Oh, that fool? Forget him for now. But here’s what we will have to do…”

* * *

(Inside a cave.)

Naruto arrived on his secret base, still affected with whatever caused him to lose control in such a spectacular fashion.

“How? How could I have not anticipated this?” in his mindless rambling, he forgot to see a wall, and with a thump knocked himself out.

* * *

(Six hours of uninterrupted sleep later…)

“Ah! So much better now.” He woke up, and stretched.

He then got up from the ground where he fell asleep, and started to think what exactly happened to him today.

‘Well, aside from the backlash I suffered, everything seems to have gone smoothly, except for the last few moments.’ He thought.

With some static, two unknown figures appeared, interrupting his thoughts.

“Naruto! So how did your plan go?” the large figure asked.

“Nicely. Though there were some issues.” He replied.

“Oh?” the other smaller figure asked.

“Apparently, I forgot to take the process itself into account, not to mention, the memories.” He elaborated.

“What do you mean?” The large figure asked again.

“Well, when I absorbed nine tails, every single cell in my body was incinerated and reformed again.” He explained, and winced at the memory.

“Ouch!” the tall figure exclaimed in sympathy.

“In matters of seconds. Not only that, I also received thousands of years of worth of knowledge, six thousand years to be exact, in just matters of few seconds.” He explains further.

“Ouch!” both of them exclaimed, and winced in sympathy this time.

“Wait,” the short figure said, “You said that your cells reformed again. So, what are you now?”

“Nice question. I guess I have become what humans are so afraid of.” Naruto answered wryly.

“What?” the tall figure said in confusion.

“Oh, you know. They all used to call me a demon child. Guess they were right after all, hahaha!” Naruto explained while laughing in amusement.

“It is not a laughing matter.” both figures retorted.

“I know. But still,” he still continues to chuckle.

Then he turned serious. “But I think my powers also changed.”

“Why? Demons can’t use ninjutsu?” the smaller figure questioned.

“No. it isn’t that. You have to understand that these techniques are designed for human use.” Then he got a wondering look on his face. “Maybe if I…”

He summoned his sword, and started to channel the demonic energy into it, instead of chakra.

It was testament to the skill of the weapon smith who crafted that sword that it didn’t melted then and there. Nothing happened for first second, but then the sword started to heat up, and turned in to the color red. Then, it melted into metal slag.

“That’s what I thought.” He said, while observing his former sword.

“Impossible! That sword was crafted by the greatest weapon smith we have to offer, it should be able to channel any type of chakra!” the smaller figure ranted in shock.

“And that is the issue.” Naruto said calmly.

“Whatever do you mean?” the larger figure asked.

“It can channel any type of chakra. But it is not designed to channel the demonic energy.” He explained.

“But wait, there is a difference between demon energy and chakra?” the large figure asked again.

“Yes. Let me explain. Imagine a glass of water.” Both of them nodded, so he continued. “Now, instead of water, put lava in the glass. What do you think would happen?”

“I think I get it now.” The figure replied in understanding.

“Exactly. The demonic energy and chakra are quite different. The techniques are different, using methods are different, and most important of all, the output is different.” Naruto explains with more detail.

“What now, we have to find a sword which can channel demon energy for you?” the smaller figure questioned.

“Kind of. But for demons, the matter is not that simple.” Naruto said.

“What?” both of them asked in confusion?

“Just imagine Kisame with his sword Samehata.” Naruto gave an example.

“Yeah, I get that too.” They replied simultaneously.

“So, do you have any particular sword in mind?” the large figure questioned again.

“Yes. But problem is that one has been lost for close to six thousand years now.” Naruto told them.

Both figures have a jaw dropping expressions on their faces.

“How would you find such a sword?”

“Well, my luck came through for me once again, and I managed to track it down.”

* * *

(On the gates of hidden leaf village.)

Sakura, Sai, and two hooded figures are currently approaching the gates of the hidden leaf.

“Halt!” the guard exclaimed.

All four of them stopped in front of guards.

One of the guards recognized Sakura. “So, Sakura, returning from a mission? I hope it has gone well.”

“Well…” she really couldn’t explain it.

But the guard understood. After all, he had seen many shinobi on same position as the girl was in now.

“I understand you two were on the mission, but I must ask for these two to remove their hoods, and reveal their identity.” The guard told her.

“Look, you really wouldn’t want to do that.” Sakura tried to stop that from happening.

“But it is a protocol. They must reveal their identity.” The guard insisted.

‘Fine. I did warn you.’ She nodded to the figures to proceed with the guard’s demands.

The first figure removed their hood, to reveal… “Kabuto Yakushi.”

The second figure was the one, which caused the true panic among the ranks of the guards. “Orochimaru of the Sanin.”

“Oh, fuck.” All the guards present there said together.

For Orochimaru, those kinds of responses are always so amusing.

* * *

(Hidden leaf village, Hokage’s office.)

Tsunade was just finishing her final stack of her paperwork of the day, and then suddenly Shizune, who was looking quite worried, ran in to the room.

“Lady Tsunade, team Yamato has returned from their mission.” She said, looking quite tense.

“Have they now? Send them in.” Tsunade said.

Shizune left, still looking uneasy.

The first sign for a trouble was not seeing Yamato.

The second sign was seeing two figures in hoods.

“Lady Tsunade, team Yamato reporting from the heaven and earth reconnaissance mission…” Sakura said, with none of her usual confidence.

The third and final sign was Sakura is the one who was currently reporting, instead of their team captain. She was also looking like she has just suffered several shocks one after another, and has barely enough energy.

“Ah, hell.” There goes her afternoon.

(End.)

* * *

Omake: the deliberation.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were sitting on a hotel room, where the room service has just delivered some pizza which Naruto had ordered.

All three of them actually came here in a con, to meet the fans of their show which despite its popularity was taken off the air without finishing the story. Despite that, they do have some fan following, even after six years has passed for them, though all three of them were aware that sooner or later, they will fade from the public consciousness.

“I can’t believe that it has been six years.” Sakura said, feeling as if she repeats these words every time they meet, the only difference being the number of years.

“Hm.” Sasuke hummed, “It feels only yesterday when we all gave our auditions.”

“Yeah, who would have thought that the self-exiled member of a clan would prove to be such a great actor?” Sakura teased a little, as well as praised Sasuke’s skills.

“Who would have thought that the ideas of a demon would actually bring us more popularity?” Sasuke continued the chain of praising.

“And yet,” Naruto spoke, “Those same ideas are the reason why we’re here commiserating, while our show gets rebooted, and the public starts to forgets us slowly…”

“Aww. Don’t be like that? if it weren’t for you and Sasuke, I would have never come out of my shell. Do you think I could have played that confident girl on the screen without the two of you?” Sakura tried to cheer Naruto.

“Still, the news that they were rebooting the show… it hit hard you know? Just like when they took it off the air, while Naruto and I were just preparing the next fight scene for the episode.”

“Yeah, I was in the middle of reading my dialogs.” Sakura remembered how disappointed she was as she puts the now useless script aside.

Taking a bite of a pizza slice, Naruto asked, “Do you think that they would do better than us?” referring to the new actors.

Sasuke scoffed. “I doubt it. remember, a very big part of that show was our experiences. My experiences of living on the streets and combat, you’re struggles of becoming a demon, and Sakura’s sheltered life and coming out of that life and adapting to the harsh nature of the world.”

Sakura nodded. “Most likely, they’ll replace us with the actors who would try and fail to insert the feelings in their rolls, since they don’t have the experiences like us.”

“But then again, we have something, don’t we?” Sasuke said, while picking up a letter.

The fact that they received a letter in this day and age was a strange thing on itself. But what was stranger that who sent that letter, or what he was offering them.

“You think its genuine?” Sakura asked.

“There is only one man who has that title, and I don’t know anyone in the multiverse who would dare to impersonate him.” Sasuke assured.

“Then, I’ll go.” Naruto said, “I’ll meet him, see what sort of offer he is giving us.”

“Be careful, there is a reason why people prefer to stay away from him.” Sasuke warned.

“I know. But unlike you, my demonic trades would come useful here.”

“Yeah, before he vaporizes you, or experiments on your soul.”

“Don’t you worry,” the demon smirked, “I do know how to use diplomacy.”

Sasuke winced. ‘Let’s just hope he doesn’t cause another war.’

Next to him, Sakura was thinking the same thoughts.

(end omake.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to the anonymous guest who gave me my first kudos on this site. Feel free to chime in the comments once in a while as well.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11.  
Quest: find the lost sword.

Alternative title: Explanations and mission report.

(With Naruto, unknown area.)

Naruto was preparing to leave, after all, the sword which has been lost for six thousand years will not going to find itself.

Then, the two mysterious figures, who are trying extremely hard to hide their identity, arrived.

“So, you’ve said that you have found the location of the sword, but never told us how?” the short figure asked.

“Well, just researching the old legends took a lot of time. And considering what kinds of nefarious plans I was advancing over the years, it just took a while to find.” Naruto answered.

“So, where it is? Perhaps we could assist you in some ways,” the large figure offered.

“While the gesture is appreciated, I really don’t think that anyone should come along with me on this hunt.” Naruto refuted.

“Why?” both of them asked in confusion. ‘And what’s up with the sudden formal speech?’ they added in their heads.

“Because it is going to be particularly trying. Not to mention, the sword itself would have been surrounded with dangerous traps.” Naruto explained, all the while trying to ignore the previous slip up with his speech.

It is a little-known fact, even to his close allies, that Naruto slips into the formal speech whenever someone offers him help, since not many people have done so in his life, this is how he deals with this feeling.

“Sounds like more of a reason to be taking help.” The short figure said sarcastically.

“But I really can’t take anyone with me.” Naruto was not willing to move from this point.

* * *

(On the Leaf village, Hokage’s office.)

‘Perhaps it was quite foolish of me to hope that mission would go well.’ Tsunade thought in annoyance.

Indeed, Tsunade by seeing several missing members of the team can deduce that the mission didn’t go well.

‘Ah well, still better than this paperwork. Still, I really wanted to be free.’ She couldn’t believe her own thought process. Here she was about to hear a critical mission report, and she was thinking about free time?

“Well? What is the mission report?” Tsunade said, when the silence stretched for too long, and it became clear that Sakura was not about to speak unless prompted.

“I-I,” it took a moment for Sakura to compose herself. But she eventually steeled herself, and replied.

“Captain Yamato is dead,” she said, with only little bit of waver in her voice. “Killed by Naruto.”

“What!” Tsunade exclaimed.

To be honest herself, Tsunade was expecting something like that when she didn’t saw either Naruto or Yamato with the team when they arrived. Maybe she didn’t catch up to her mind.

“Lady Tsunade,” Sai spoke then. “I must report to ANBU immediately.” To hell with this report.

“You may go then.” Tsunade allowed him to escape.

Sai disappeared. He couldn’t believe that he managed to pull a real ninja escape. Ninja’s like him shouldn’t get involved in these matters, at least according to the super-secret root manual, which clearly states that emotional mission reports are to be avoided.

“Kukuku!” one of the hooded figures chuckled. “Still in denial I see.”

Despite the hood covering the figure’s face, Tsunade recognized the voice and that chuckle.

“You!” in the burst of speed, she was in front of the hooded figure, ready to knock his lights out.

But her punch was blocked by the last person she expected.

And that person was Sakura.

“Sakura! Move aside, now!”

Meanwhile, knowing that their secret is out, both Orochimaru and Kabuto removed their hoods. Not that it helped them much.

“Move aside, Sakura!” Tsunade warned for the second time, while putting more strength in her punch.

Sakura, while straining against her mentor’s strength, replied. “I think we should listen to what he had to say, lady Tsunade.”

“Listen to him? Are you out of your mind? Do you realize, that you brought fucking Orochimaru into my office?” Tsunade said incredulously.

Without even trying to restrain himself, Orochimaru palmed his face. “Really? After years we met, — “he was interrupted in the middle by Tsunade.

“Yeah, only three years ago, we met face to face. Get over it.”

But he completely ignored her remark, and continued. “And this is how you treat me?”

“Okay, fine! Explain.” Tsunade said to Sakura.

* * *

(After two hours of explaining later…) // I can’t explain how much I love this skipping thing as a totally not a very good, as well as non-improving author… *muffle muffle*…

“So what, he suddenly transformed?” the Hokage questioned.

“Yes.” Orochimaru confirmed.

“But from your description, he didn’t change much.” She probed for more detail.

“I think you are thinking about the jinchuriki transformation.” Kabuto deduced.

“So he didn’t transform into his tail beast state?” Tsunade couldn’t think of any other thing.

“No. it was completely different.” Orochimaru explained again.

“Okay, that explains it. But where did Uchiha go in the middle of this?”

“Well…” Sakura said, with some hesitation.

* * *

(Flashback.)

After managing to convince the girl and her teammate for taking him to the Leaf village, they have just departed the base. And found Sasuke not far from them.

“And where do you think you are going?” a voice hissed.

“Yeah Sasuke. You should come with us.” Sadly for the owner of that voice, the effect was completely ruined.

“Shut up, Sakura!” Sasuke said coldly.

Sakura felt as if someone slapped her, without even touching her.

“And you!” he rounded on Orochimaru. “Where did your promises of power go? I was completely crushed in a battle. How am I supposed to accomplish my goals like that?”

“Humph. As if you could have beaten Uzomaki anyway.” Orochimaru couldn’t even believe that he thought that a boy like him could be considered strong.

“What?” Sasuke said with some confusion, and a lot of rage.

“Do you honestly think that you stand a chance against him? Even when he was holding back, you have trouble keeping up with him. The only reason why you survived today is because of some unknown reason.” Orochimaru told him in a brutally honest tone.

“Whatever. I am not coming with you. Besides, Naruto can go die if all I care. The only person whom I am concern with right now is Itachi.” After saying that, Sasuke left.

Sakura tried to go after him, but she was stopped by Orochimaru.

“Let him go girl, soon enough, he will realize his problem.”

* * *

(End flashback.)

“So you didn’t have much of a choice?” Tsunade wanted to confirm.

“Yes.” Sakura confirmed.

“But I still can’t believe that Naruto managed to do all that.” Sakura said, still in disbelief.

“It was most likely planned like that way by him.” Kabuto replied.

“You also mentioned something which he wanted from you, what was it?” Tsunade asked.

“Oh that? It was this.” Orochimaru puts his one hand on the pocket, and pulled out a ring.

“A ring?” she asked, not knowing how important that ring is.

“Not any normal ring,—“

Orochimaru was interrupted by the sound of window shattering.

“Hello my love!” Jiraiya announced his arrival loudly. “I have some grave news for you.”

Then he noticed the other occupant of the room. “You!” he created a Rasengan out of shear instincts.

“Calm down Jiraiya.” Tsunade drawled.

“Calm down? Calm down? You realize that you have fucking Orochimaru in your office?” the toad Sanin couldn’t believe his ears.

Orochimaru did another face palm. ‘Something tells me that I will be hearing that quite a lot during this entire day.’

“As I was saying,” Orochimaru picked up from where he was interrupted. “This ring is,—“

“The Akatsuki ring!” Jiraiya pointed dramatically.

“Yes.” He confirmed. “Have you heard about it?”

“Of course.” Jiraiya confirmed.

“Then do you know their purpose?”

“Not exactly. But I do no they are used for communications. Also, if any Akatsuki member dies, the organization always retrieve those rings.” Jiraiya reveals the information he knew so far.

“Correct.” Orochimaru nodded. “But the most important purpose of these rings is, they can be used for extracting the tail beast chakra.”

“You mean they are essential part of extracting the tail beasts from their human container?” Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow. After all, even with their latest Jinchuriki problems, they have been still looking on Akatsuki, and information like that about them was worth gold for a Shinobi nation.

“Exactly. But that is not all. The other important bit of information is, why there are only ten of these rings?” Orochimaru questioned.

“Maybe because that’s exactly the number of Akatsuki members at any given time?” Jiraiya guessed.

“That is a possibility. But these rings are not just for that. When I was in the Akatsuki, I heard some roomers.” The snake Sanin said mysteriously.

“What kind?” Tsunade asked sharply.

“That the leader of the organization is planning to use these rings to open a portal.” Orochimaru explained.

“Open the portal to where?” Sakura asked, feeling out of her depth in that office.

“Sadly, I never was able to find out. But I do know how it can be done.”

“How?” Jiraiya asked, concerned.

“First, you have to unite all ten rings into one. Afterwards, you also would need enough power which can open the portal.” He explains the process.

“So the leader of Akatsuki wants to open that portal with that power?” Tsunade said in understanding.

“Most likely.” He confirmed.

“Strange. I thought they were planning to create some sort of weapon.” Jiraiya told one of his own theories.

“That to.” Orochimaru nodded.

“Damn it.” Jiraiya cursed.

“To summarize, Naruto wants the ring you have, along with the rings of the remaining Akatsuki members?” Tsunade said sharply.

“Yes. That was the sole reason why he actually spared Sasuke. Or his eyes at least.”

Apparently, that was too much for Sakura, and she exploded.

“This is absurd! Naruto, who couldn’t even create a single clone in academy planned all that? Naruto, who couldn’t even control his chakra properly.” She was interrupted in the middle of her rant.

“Yes. To all of those questions.” Kabuto said sarcasm coloring his voice.

“Besides, considering how he acted, do you honestly think anyone would have doubted him?” Orochimaru said.

“But still! He couldn’t even dress like a real ninja.” Sakura was not willing to let go of the point.

“And yet, he managed to pull pranks right under peoples noses.” Orochimaru hammered the point.

Sakura slumped. “I still can’t believe it,”

“Actually, those bad clothes you mentioned? They never even existed.” Kabuto just couldn’t let go of that chance.

“What?” she asked in confusion.

“He simply copied your technique.” Orochimaru said to Tsunade.

“I like to think he reverse engineered it.” Kabuto inserted his own opinion.

“So, all of his appearances were also a disguise?” Jiraiya asked faintly.

“Correct.” Orochimaru confirmed gleefully.

“Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. I will hold a council meeting, and then determine what to do.” The Hokage gave her verdict.

“Agreed.” All the people present agreed.

* * *

(On the market of the Leaf village.)

All the civilians were waiting an entire week for this.

What is so special you might be asking. Here is what’s happening.

“Choza,” Shikaku Nara, head of the Nara clan, said threateningly. “You can still apologize.”

“As if!” Choza refused, “You do no we needed that deer for our feast, right?”

“Still!” Shikaku said with a dull roar. “You can’t take whatever you want whenever you need it!”

In reality, that deer was given by Nara clan to the Akimichi clan, for the feast which they were preparing for their guests.

But no one has to know that.

“It is unfortunate, but it would appear that both our clans are in disagreement.” Choza said in a threatening tone.

“Then there is only one way.” Shikaku said solemnly.

The civilians were getting excited. They were finally going to see what they have gathered for.

While not everyone is aware of this fact in the village, the members of the shinobi clans always get quite stressed. So, they organize these kinds of events, for not only to relax, but also as a nod to their previous history of warring clan days. And civilians who are aware of this fact get some entertainment out of it.

But sadly for everyone, an ANBU appeared, and interrupted all of their fun.

“Lord Shikaku, lord Choza, there is a council meeting about to take place in few minutes. Please be present there.” Having delivered his message, the ANBU disappeared.

* * *

(In the Hyuga clan compound.)

Unlike the streets of the village, the Hyuga clan compound was not happy or relaxed.

Instead the clan members were experiencing the feeling, as if some sort of storm has devastated their lives, and left them to pick up the pieces.

* * *

(With Tsunade and company.)

Tsunade, Sakura, Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Kabuto were all approaching the councils meeting room.

“You know, I never understood why we use ANBU, our ninjas who are supposed to stay in the shadows, as messengers.” Orochimaru asked in confusion.

“Well, if anyone tried to get the information out of them, they will be disappointed.” Tsunade said proudly.

“Who would try such a thing in the village?” Sakura asked.

“You will be surprised.” Tsunade said mysteriously, while thinking about a certain bandaged old man.

As they approached the room closer and closer, they were hearing a cheerful voice finishing some sort of speech.

“And that is why, I am the rightful head of the Hyuga clan.” The voice finished.

Tsunade opened the door, and all five of them entered into the room.

“What’s going on here?” she asked authoritatively.

“Oh! Lady Hokage. I was just explaining to these people why I am the current head of the Hyuga clan now.” Hinata explained in an excited voice.

“How?” Sakura couldn’t believe this.

Hinata didn’t answer.

“Well? Answer her question.” Tsunade ordered. “How did you become the clan head?” in truth, Tsunade was also curious to know about that.

Not to mention, she was seeing madness in that girl’s eyes. To think this was the so called shy Hyuga princess.

“Simple.” Hinata said. Being Tsunade ordering her leaving her no choice. “I entered in to the Hyuga clan head library, I learned techniques in the clan head library, I get out of that library, and beat up my father, and become the leader of the clan!” she finished cheerfully.

For the moment, Tsunade was speechless. “I-I see.” She said, after composing herself.

But if she was honest with herself, she didn’t care for such things at this moment. Besides, it was Hyuga clan’s fault for following such archaic laws. Not to mention, insisting that Hokage has no business in their so called “clan affairs.”

They don’t even realize how much it took every Hokage to convince the feudal lord to not declare the entire clan in to the violation of the anti-slavery laws of the land of fire.

‘Well, let them deal with this. See if I care.’ Tsunade thought contemptibly. “Well, everything is in order.” she declared, making everyone sigh in relief.

Then, Kakashi entered the room.

“Lady Tsunade, I was just released from the hospital and, have heard about this meeting—“ Kakashi sees Orochimaru and activated his signature technique. “What the hell! Do you realize you have Orochimaru in our council room!”

“Calm down Kakashi.” Tsunade said, inwardly very amused. Poor Shizune has the same reaction.

“Calm down? You have fucking Orochimaru in here, and you want me to calm down?”

“Sensei,” Sakura who was so far quiet, said. “It is important.”

Kakashi sighed. “Well, I don’t have a choice then.” He said, and sat down on to one of the empty chairs.

“Good.” Tsunade nodded. “Here’s the situation.”

* * *

(Two hours, and much political yelling later......)

“Be quiet!” Tsunade bellowed.

Silence.

“Good.” Tsunade scanned the crowd of old and young ninjas alike, and found the man she was looking for.

“Danzo.” Her eyes stopped on the old crippled ninja. “Now that we have clarified the situation, give me all the information you have on Naruto Uzomaki.”

“What makes you think I have any information on him?” he said, while giving away nothing. Usual thing for him to do.

“Oh please. If there is anyone in this room who has any idea what we are dealing with, then it has to be you.” Seeing that he wouldn’t give any information so easily, she decided to give him something in return.

“If you give me the information which I desire, I will reinstate your old Root division.” She offered generously.

That declaration shocked badly everyone. Tsunade and Danzo never agreed on anything since she took the position of Hokage, and Hiruzin was the one who actually ordered him to close that division.

For her to say something like that, it was telling how serious the situation is.

“Fine then.” He agreed.

“Well then? Start talking.” She ordered.

“I like to start with that Naruto Uzomaki you all know or expect to know is a complete lie.” Danzo started.

“What?” several council members and ninjas exclaimed simultaneously. Too bad that they didn’t realize that it is just the beginning of the truth, which Danzo was about to peal slowly like the lairs of an onion.

“Oh be quiet.” He said in annoyance. “This is just a beginning.”

“As far as I have managed to gather from the information I have on him, Naruto Uzomaki appears to have all the qualities of an ideal shinobi. Except for one.” He said gravely.

“And that is?” Tsunade prompted.

“That is his loyalty. He is loyal to only himself. No village, organization, country currently holds his loyalty.” He takes a deep breath to continue.

“He is quite great at deception, manipulation, and knowing when to strike, those are just his skills from the point of view of a shinobi.”

“You mean there is more?” everyone asked in surprised.

“Exactly. He also appears to be a great fighter.” Danzo continued, as if no one spoke.

“That much we are aware.” Orochimaru hissed. Having not forgotten the beating Sasuke and he had received from him recently.

“You mean his fighting skills do not count as his shinobi skills?” Tsunade asked sharply.

“No. you have to understand that most shinobi are hardly known. They mostly perform information gathering missions, spying, and things like that. They are not the direct combative in a battle, they would rather avoid it actually.” He explained.

“That is the most troubling part. He not only possesses a cunning mind, but raw power to back it up.” Orochimaru said in understanding.

“Exactly. Also, he is one of the richest people in the world.” Danzo continued his explanation.

“Yeah. Because of my neckless.” Tsunade snarked.

“Hm? No. your neckless has nothing on his account. He simply is a quite a good business man. He mostly organizes things in such a manner, that his business interests do not require his presence. Leaving him to focus on the projects which hold his personal attention.”

“Great. Anything else?” Tsunade asked, covering her incredulousness with sarcasm.

“Yes. Through his financial sources, he had provided aid to several struggling countries. The list is quite long.” Danzo confirmed.

“That would mean he most likely hold influence over them.” Kakashi deduced.

“Indeed.” Several older ninjas agreed.

“Do you know any shinobi nations who can support him?” Tsunade asked another important question.

“I have my doubts, but I don’t have any proof.” Danzo didn’t confirm anything, but didn’t have anything either.

“Okay. That takes care of the information regarding him. But how can we deal with him?” she fired another question.

“As we are now? Not very efficiently. Our Jonin do not stand a chance against him, there is a reason why he have a highest bounty on his head.”

“Wait, bounty? You didn’t mention it before.” Tsunade asked.

“I didn’t?” he takes a moment to think about it. “I must have forgotten about it.” he admitted honestly, which was quite out of character for him.

“Anyway,” Tsunade composed herself after such a surprisingly honest answer from Danzo, and then asked her next question. “Which shinobi nations have a bounty on him?”

“From what I understand, along with several smaller countries, he has the biggest bounty by Hidden Stone.”

“Why?” Tsunade asked again.

“Apparently, he caused quite a chaos for some unknown scheme of his some time ago. Under an alliance of course. So even if you were to hear about that incident, you wouldn’t connect the dots.”

“And you knew how?” she asked shrewdly.

“I have my ways.”

Tsunade took a moment to collect her thoughts. She needed to take all the information presented to her in to account, and then form the best suitable plan to proceed with.

“Okay people. Here’s what’s we will do. Since he has just deserted the village, he wouldn’t have many places to run for now. Not even his yet unknown shinobi allies. So we will hunt him as quickly as possible. But we will proceed with caution. No one under the rank of Jonin will engage him, and even I would prefer if only our elite Jonin will fight him.”

Everyone nodded.

“We also will put him on the bingo book, with our own bounty. And the order will be kill on sight!” she finished dramatically.

While everyone agreed with the plan, one person have problem with the last part.

“Lady Tsunade, if I may?” Hinata suddenly stood up and asked.

“Proceed.”

“I think instead of killing him on sight, we should change it to the capture on sight.” She suggested.

“Why?” Tsunade asked.

“Because of his impressive financial resources, along with his strength, if we were to turn Naruto into our weapon, and convert his financial resources to our own, the village could gain a lot in short amount of time.” She gives her reasoning.

“I like it. Still, if it is not possible, we can include in that case, kill on sight.” There was no need to take unnecessary risks.

“Yes. That is reasonable.” Everyone nodded.

As soon as they were done planning, one of the council members who was just a normal shinobi, and nothing impressive asked another question.

“Lady Tsunade, I don’t understand why one shinobi garners so much attention? I mean even when the Sannin Orochimaru deserted the village, there was no such meeting.”

“You are one of those who got their council position just by politics, aren’t you?” several ninjas jeered.

“What!” the man roared in offence.

“Listen to me fool! And understand the wider picture. That boy holds the nine tail fox!”

Soon, the shinobi –at least the younger ones—were in uproar.

“Yes, yes, it was a village secret. Get over it! But he holds a great power. We can’t let him be free like that. Imagine if he collaborated with our enemies?” that scenario was too terrifying to even think about.

Complete silence.

“That is what I thought.”

* * *

(In the front of the Fire Temple.)

“So, they are keeping the sword here? Someone would think that people will not try to hide the secret things at an obvious place like this.” Naruto was not impressed at the place of hiding of that sword.

He remembers the conversation he had before arriving here.

* * *

(Flashback.)

“So, how would you found a sword which has been lost for such a long time?” one of the figures asked.

“Tell me something. You still recognized the name when I said its name?” Naruto questioned.

“Yeah, why?” the large figure confirmed and asked.

“Simple. If something is lost for thousands of years, yet people still recognizes its name, that mean it is hidden quite close. I also think that sword is not lost for six thousand years.” Naruto gave his theory.

“Why would you think that?” the short figure asked.

“Because things simply do not add up. Considering how bad people are keeping records, and how much they fight among themselves, information like this should have been lost a long time ago. Yet, it is not.”

“So you think that sword you are after is not lost?” both of them asked, wanting to confirm what they were thinking.

“Oh it is lost alright. But not for the time it has been stated. I have my suspicions that sword was in use for a time being. But I have no way of confirming this.” Naruto explained.

* * *

(Flashback end)

Naruto started to observe his surrounding area, and then brought out a map out of his pocket.

“Let’s see, the area is the same, a temple is also present, yep. I am on the correct path.” Happy that he was on the correct path, he put away that map.

He then started to move towards the temple. When he arrived there, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The temple was situated quite a long climb on stairs, which from the far do not look much bigger. But when he gets close to the bottom of the stairs, he realizes how high the damn thing was.

“So they wanted to hide an artifact. Naturally they don’t want to let anyone find the location of the place, but instead of I don’t know, throwing it into the sea, or hiding the thing on an icy mountain or something, they decided to hide it here?” Naruto criticized.

He shook his head at the poor decisions of the ancient humans.

“Not my problem.” He takes a look of the long stairs. “It is the good thing that the architect of this temple is long dead. I would have killed him myself for building such stairs. After all, who would want to go up and down them? Except for the insane martial artists, and monks. Can’t forget the monks. Even if these people are but a shadow of the real ones.” He shivered at an unpleasant memory.

One swift crack of the finger, and Naruto appeared on the top of the mountain where the temple was situated.

“Man! Gotta love these cheating privileges.” He exclaimed in happiness.

Naruto takes another moment to observe the door of the temple.

“I could knock politely, I mean I can, after all. The door is just there... on the other hand,” Naruto’s eyes started to changed colors from gold to orange. “This will be the first time I would have the chance to test it.”

After focusing on his left hand, the orange light appeared. And without any hesitation, he fired the charged beam right at the door.

“Hyper beam!”

Boooooom!

* * *

(Inside the temple.)

All the people inside the temple were either monks, or monks in training. They were just starting their day, there was a bright sun today as well.

So it came as a startling surprise when their front door was blown open in such a spectacular manner.

“What was that?” one of the monks asked another monk near him.

“Did you hear it?” another one whispered.

“That door was supposed to be quite strong, how did that even happen?” another one stated, disbelief evident on his voice.

In the murmur of their shocked conversation, a person walks in.

(Soundtrack: Mortal Kombat conquest: inside the obelisk.)

“So this is how it looks from inside huh? Well, it does offer quite a view from up here…” the person who caused that explosion said.

“W-who are you!” one of the monks said, fearful.

“Oh me? Don’t mind me. Act as if I never was here.” Naruto replied distractedly.

The monks were a loss for words. They didn’t expect such a reply.

“Halt! Who are you and what is your purpose for coming here?” another monk walks in, by the looks of it, he appears to be a leader.

“And you are......” he takes a look to observe the crowd of monks. “Nope. Don’t see why you are so different. You look like same to me.”

“I am Chiriku, head of the Fire Temple and,” the leader of the monks began, but was interrupted in the middle.

“Bla, bla, bla, I am not here to listen about your position and achievements. Now, would you mind getting out of my way?” Naruto said in annoyance.

“Not until you tell me your purpose!” Chiriku said stubbornly.

“You still hung up on that? Okay fine. Would you believe me if I said that I only wanted to blow your temple’s door, and then walk away?” Naruto asked, still annoyed.

“No.” the monk said flatly.

“That’s what I thought. Now, please get out of the way.” Naruto requested, no ordered. Demons do not request.

“Not—“ Chiriku was about to start another one of his tirade but was interrupted again by the extremely enraged Naruto.

“Oh fine! I am here for the sword! Happy?” Naruto’s resistance finally cracked.

“Sword? What sword, oh, that sword. I will not allow you to get your hands on that sword.” The leader of the monks stated gravely. “That sword is not for the human hands.”

“Wow, you don’t have any idea do you. That sword was used by the human around four thousand years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to confirm it.” Naruto said with a condescending tone.

“Still—“ Naruto didn’t allowed him to speak.

“Also, I am delighted to inform you that I am not human.” Naruto said with glee.

“Then it is more important that I do not allow you to get you anywhere near that sword.” Chiriku said, taking a fighting stance.

“I gave you multiple chances to leave me be, and I am giving you another. Get. Out of my way!” Naruto offered generously.

“No!” Chiriku refused that generous offer.

“And how exactly do you hope to stop me?” Naruto questioned in some incredulousness in his voice.

“This is how!” Chiriku was a blur of punches and kicks for anyone observing.

Naruto, not prepared to react, received a direct hit. “What?” hit. “Oy!” hit. “Stop that!” hit. “I am serious!” hit. “Your dead, you hear me?” hit. “God damn it!”

The last hit sent him flying to a little distance.

“Understand now?” Chiriku said smugly.

“Hmhmhm. You are a fool if you think that you accomplished anything.” He said, and got up from the ground.

“What?” the monk was quite surprised. No one should be able to get up so easily after receiving such a beating.

“Allow me,” he disappeared from the sight of Chiriku, “To relieve you of your all earthly concerns! Hahahaha!” and reappeared behind him, and twisted his neck with a sickening crack!

All the monks were in shock. Their leader, Chiriku, who was the strongest among them, was used to be one of the twelve guardians of the feudal lord himself, was taken out effortlessly by this individual.

“Now, to resume my search......” Naruto ignored the dead monk’s body.

The words were enough for other monks to come out of their shock. And they were not happy.

“Halt! You are not allowed on this temple. Leave immediately.” Another monk proclaimed.

“Look. I don’t care what you do with yourselves or with this temple. But I am here for one thing. And I will retrieve it at all cost. I would appreciate if you don’t get in my way.” Naruto said having lost all of his patience.

But the monks were not in the mood of listening.

“Let’s go brothers! For lord Chiriku!” the monk uttered the war cry.

“For lord Chiriku!” the other monks repeated the war cry.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to be peaceful or something… oh hell!” Naruto had enough with them.

They should really have taken the numerous chances he had given them.

* * *

(Ten minutes later.)

“They all died! Despite my warnings that they shouldn’t interfere in my affairs, they did and they all died!” Naruto takes a deep breath.

“Ah well, they weren’t true monks, so it wouldn’t matter much. Still! I wouldn’t have to kill them. They should have listened to me…” his sulking was interrupted by someone.

“Who are you?” a boy walked from the inside of the temple. The boy observes all the bodies lying around in horror. “You killed everyone I knew!”

He lunged at the demon, which proved to be the last mistake of his life.

Naruto grabbed him from his throat, and effortlessly lifted him in the air. “Strange. How did you get the demonic essence, boy?” the boy was not able to answer his question.

“…” because he is currently busy choking.

“Fine. Be that way.” Naruto extracted his soul, and removed the demonic essence from it.

“Sorry to kill you, but your soul will be thanking me later.” Naruto couldn’t believe what kind of things he had seen.

* * *

(Inside the temple.)

Naruto was reexamining the map he has brought with him.

“So there is nothing after this area. Still, it is quite impressive that someone managed to map this place so far.” He takes a look around his area.

“There is no hint where I should go from here. What should I do?” Naruto askes himself.

Lost, and having no way to find the way, he started to look to the walls, to see whether they have any hidden passageways.

Though he didn’t find a secret passageway, his walking and checking the walls brought him to a door.

“Finally! A door! And if there is a door, there must be a room.” He opens the door and enters into the room.

“Now, where is that sword?” immediately, he was assaulted by the noise like rock moving.

“What is that damn noise? Ah well, it couldn’t be that important.” Naruto ignored that noise.

Unfortunately for him, that noise was the result of the activation of an ancient defense system.

(Soundtrack: Mortal Kombat Armageddon obelisk battle.)

Naruto saw moving somethings in the shadow, and promptly have to dodge a sword.

“Hell! What are those?” several of the things surrounded him. As they come closer, he started to destroy them by punching and kicking.

“What are they breaking into?” he looks to the substance which the things were made of.

“Mud? Mud soldiers? Well, I can’t say that they are bad at their job…” and cheap material too!

(Back to the inside the obelisk.)

After taking care of those mud soldiers, Naruto managed to find his way to another room.

“Phew. That was too close. Seriously. You don’t realize how dangerous ancient defenses can be, until you have experience with them.” Naruto takes a breath of relief after dispatching those soldiers.

He observes this new room. There is nothing in this room, except a platform, and... …

“The sword I have been trying to find in this place.” Naruto said with a tone of accomplishment.

In any other situation, Naruto would have been overjoyed in finally accomplishing his task. But seeing that this place have traps, he was not willing to touch that sword without confirming weather it have any traps of its own or not.

After much hesitation, he decided to just go and pick up the sword. After all, what could happen?

So he just did that.

* * *

(Inside a dark dimension.)

As soon as he touched the sword, Naruto finds himself in this unknown place. The place was completely dark, there was no light present there. It was as if the concept of light never existed in this place.

“Hello!” a voice greeted cheerfully.

“Hello?” Naruto returned the greeting in confusion.

An awkward silence takes place.

“Sooo!” Naruto decided to break the silence. “May I ask whom I am speaking to?”

“You may.” The voice stated magnanimously. “I am the thing which you touched, and appeared here. In short, I am the sword known as Yamato.” The sword gave it’s (his?) introduction.

“Not very bright, are you?” Naruto stated in some amusement.

“Well, there is a reason why I am stated to be the sword of darkness.” Yamato explained primly.

“Point.” Naruto agreed. 

Another silence. But this one was not awkward.

“So you came to retrieve me?” Yamato began another round of questioning.

“Yes.” Naruto gave his simple answer.

Although Yamato asked that question in an extremely flat tone, inwardly he was quite giddy with happiness. After all, who wouldn’t be after four thousand years of loneliness?

“I will allow you to wield me, if you will pass my test.” Yamato said in a grave tone.

“You realize how common that cliché is?” Naruto returned in a sarcastic tone.

“Yes. But appearances must be maintained.” Yamato agreed and explained.

“I understand. So would you tell me the test? Or I would have to do everything myself and you would call it a test?” Naruto said, still sarcastic.

“God. What do you think I am? Of course I will tell you what’s the test are. You just have to answer some questions.” Yamato explained the test.

“Oh thank god. I was not looking forward to some sort of combat test.” He has enough combat for one day, thank you very much.

“Why?” Yamato asked in confusion.

“Already slaughter the monks, and fought the mud soldiers. I don’t feel like fighting more today.” Naruto gave his reasons.

“Understandable. Okay, here is my first question. This question is important for every teenager. Do you like to watch porn?” Yamato asked his question, baffling Naruto in the process.

Naruto started to cackle. “Hahahaha! Ask more of these questions, and I just might decide to get you into the position of a headmaster of a school. As for your answer, why bother with the tease, when you can have real thing?” Naruto said with amusement.

“Great!” Yamato exclaimed. “I meant ahem. A most detailed answer.” He said after composing himself.

“Now the second and the final question.” Yamato stated in a grave tone.

Naruto was preparing himself for the question just like the first one, but this time, he was about to be surprised.

“Why, exactly do you fight?” Yamato asked the all-important question.

“What?” Naruto got a mood whiplash.

“What is it, which drives you to the conflict?” Yamato stated with more detail.

There were a lot of responses he could have given. But since this sword is going to be with him during his entire journey, he was feeling he should be honest with him.

The chance that the sword will refuse to come with him didn’t even crossed his mind.

“You know, this question does not apply on me alone.” Naruto tried to explain.

“Oh?” Yamato was intrigued.

“It applies to all the species which have even the slightest amount of intelligence.” Naruto said, while trying to compose more details for this answer.

“Animals fight for food, for territory, and for their offspring’s. At least in their young ages. While species like humans fight for territory, which is not any different than animals, and resources. That is where things start to get complicated.” He takes a breath.

“Humans also fight for pride, they don’t like that someone else is either more influential than them, richer than them, etc. etc.”

“So what about you?” Yamato prodded.

“Me? I most certainly don’t fight for territory. It would be just too much work to maintain it. To protect someone? The people about whom I care for are capable of protecting and taking care of themselves. So not for that either. Power? Maybe. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be so powerful that no one in the world will ever bother me. I wouldn’t be anyone’s puppet.” Naruto shared his philosophy, which he hasn’t done before.

“Or you can say that I fight because that is the only thing which I no.” Naruto said.

“You are aware of the nature of this world?” he asked.

“Of course. Your world in particular. It is filled with conflicts.” Yamato confirmed.

“So, since I am born in such a world, wouldn’t it be a natural reason that I will fight as my instincts?” he questioned.

“True.” The sword agreed.

“But I decided that I do fight to become powerful, and I fight that so I will not be anyone’s puppet.” He finished.

“In the light of your answers…” Yamato stated like a self-important sword he is. “You passed.”

“I do? Just like that?” the teenager was surprised.

“Of course. What do you think I would do more.” Yamato asked.

“Well, I thought that since you are the sword of darkness, you are supposed to give your power to someone who would destroy the world…” Naruto told one of his childhood reasons.

“Read too many comics have you?” Yamato more stated than questioned.

“Yep. During my visits to places, I acquired this new hobby.” Naruto confirmed where he got that childhood theory.

“Whatever. The fact is, I accept you as my wielder.” Yamato told him flatly.

“Great!” Naruto exclaimed in happiness.

* * *

(Back at the temple.)

Naruto’s consciousness returns back to his body. He finds himself holding on to the handle of the sword which he has been looking for so long.

The sword have a quite a unique design, which is not found anywhere in the elemental nations. It has a slightly long handle, and two wings like protrusions were also present in the middle of the handle and the blade. The blade was strait, and double edged.

“Let us confirm the myth.” Naruto stated to the empty room in excitement.

“What myth?” Yamato’s voice resonated in Naruto’s mind.

“You can talk to me? Even outside of your dimension?” that was surprising for him.

“Of course! Fiction rule, artifact and treasure section, weapons second rule’s third paragraph clearly states that a protagonist must have a talking sword, or a talking weapon if the setting allows It.” the sword resided like a lawyer.

“You know what would be more terrifying than an ancient demonic sword?” Naruto questioned out of the nowhere.

“What?” the sword was confused with a sudden change of topic.

“An ancient demonic sword, which is a lawyer.” Naruto answered.

“Yeah.” They both shuttered at the thought.

Well, more like Naruto shuttered, and Yamato just expressed the feeling.

“So what was the myth you were talking about?” Yamato got back to the original topic.

“Oh that? I heard that you can cut the cloth with just one slide.” Naruto told the sword myth about itself.

Naruto summons a piece of cloth made of cotton. After putting it above the edge of the blade of Yamato, started to slide it like on a chainsaw.

Naturally, the cloth was split in the middle before he could even take it downward for the second slide.

“The myth is proven.” Naruto stated gleefully.

“A mere cloth? I can cut through anything, and you decided to test me on that?” the sword was offended.

“Sorry? Look, why don’t we just get out of here?” Naruto was not willing to argue with his newly acquired sword.

“A wonderful idea!” Yamato agreed wholeheartedly.

Sadly for Naruto, that room started to shake, and one of the walls of the room parted to reveal.

“What the hell is that?” Naruto haven’t seen anything like this anywhere in his life.

From that parted wall, walked out something. That something was clearly used to be a human, judging by its shape. But it doesn’t look like any human. The skin was dry like leather, and whatever it is, it looks to be quite unnatural. As if it did not belong in the living world.

“A lich.” Yamato answered Naruto’s frantic question.

“Here? Who would create such a thing here?” Naruto was baffled.

“Well, the monks of old, for one. Or the true monks as you like to call them.” Yamato answered his wielder’s question again.

“Figures. But why would it suddenly awake like that?” Naruto didn’t disturb that lich.

“Because someone tried, and succeeded in retrieving me.” Yamato explained.

“Another part of defense system then.” Naruto deduced.

“I will advise you to be careful, Naruto. That lich used to be my former wielder. He was quite strong when he was alive.” Yamato was quite sad to see his former wielder’s condition.

“Ah hell.”

“Exactly.”

Then, a voice started to speak.

“Whoever you are, put that sword back right now, you will be spared.”

“Yeah right. Why don’t you—“

“There is no point. That message was recorded thousands of years ago.” Yamato stopped Naruto’s retort.

“This is your final warning.”

“Whoever design this, was clearly insane.” Naruto stated flatly.

“Like you wouldn’t believe it.” Yamato agreed.

“Very well then. Prepare for the punishment.” The voice stated finally.

The lich which was quiet so far, suddenly let out a roar, and moved towards Naruto. He did manage to dodge his assault, but the lich was not deterred.

The lich tried to get in close range with Naruto few more times, but Naruto continues to maintain his distance. He cannot afford to get in the physical struggle with the lich.

Whatever intelligence the lich have at this point clearly made it frustrated at being not able to beat this enemy. So it decided to go long distance, and charge energy into its hands.

“What is it doing?” Naruto asked Yamato in confusion.

“Dodge!” Yamato’s warning saved Naruto.

“What!”

Naruto frantically avoided the ball of lightning which melted the wall which it collided with.

“Phew. that was close.”

As soon as he said that, several more of them started to come at him.

“Spoke to soon?” Yamato asked in amusement.

“Shut up!”

Seeing that its current attack was not having the intended effect, the lich decided to try a different attack.

“What now!” Naruto didn’t expect that lich to be so strong.

“It is charging lightning beam.” Yamato stated dryly.

“What?” Naruto asked, confused.

“Be careful. Those can track you.” Yamato continued to explain.

The lich released several thin beams of lightning which started to track the speedily moving away Naruto.

When a beam got too close for the comfort, he sliced it with his sword.

But there were too many of them, he couldn’t slice them all.

Meanwhile, the lich continues to fire more of those pesky beams, managing to corner Naruto on the room.

As Naruto continued to slice those beams which got close to him, the lich took advantage of this and disappeared in the burst of speed and got closer to Naruto. Meanwhile, all the beams which were chasing him so far disappeared.

“What happen? Where did those beams go?”

“Watch out!” Yamato’s warning came too late.

The lich appeared in the front of surprised Naruto, and grabbed Yamato’s blade, and was trying in with all his might to wrench it out of his hands.

‘Let go.’ The terrible will of the undead proclaimed, its purpose clear.

“No!”

Naruto defied, not willing to let go of the sword.

The lich roared in anger, and started to pull more strongly.

“Ahhhhh!” both of them yelled at the top of their lungs, not willing to give up.

“You lose!”

In the end, Naruto’s will proved to be stronger, sending the ancient wielder of Yamato flying.

“Naruto, quick!”

“Right.” Naruto rushed his downed opponent, and a glow of demonic energy surrounded Yamato.

He started to slice at the lich’s body, first starting slow, increasing in the speed gradually.

“Take this!” he finished the attack with a ball of energy which he charged in his hand, when it exploded, the body of the lich was vaporized.

“Congratulations. You deserve that sword.”

Another voice proclaimed, different one than the first.

“Whatever.” Naruto said, huffing heavily. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“Agreed.” With that, both the sword and its wielder escaped.

* * *

(Few hours later, after Naruto left.)

The monks who were not on the temple did survive. They saw two individuals with black cloaks and red clouds exiting their temple. When they arrived there, they found that their leader was killed, his body was missing, and all the monks inside the temple were also dead.

“Inform the leaf,” another old monk said, who assumed the responsibility of the leader on the temporary bases. “Two individuals with black cloaks and red clouds slaughtered the monks of the Fire Temple.”


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.  
Time to die! Wait what’s that I see?

(Tsunade, in Hokage’s office.)

After finishing that counsel meeting, Tsunade has to brief all of her currently available elite ninjas.

That didn’t go as smoothly as it could have been. Mostly because of Orochimaru.

People usually do not except someone who had committed so many crimes against the nature, and the village itself, (Can’t forget about the village,) so easily.

As she was contemplating all of that, her door was opened, and Shizune walks in.

“Lady Tsunade, some monks from the Fire Temple are here to see you.” she informed.

“What? What do those Monks want?” she didn’t see what they could do for them.

“I don’t know. They refuse to talk to anyone but you.”

“Fine then. Send them in.” she said, promptly.

“Yes.” Shizune understood and left to send them in.

After Shizune left, an old man with some younger monks presumably for his protection walks in her office. Tsunade puts her game face on.

“So. What do the monks of the Fire Temple would want from us?” she asked in her usual tone.

“It is a gravely important matter.” the old man stated.

“Oh?” as if it wasn’t obvious from the beginning.

“Yesterday, all the monks who were present in the Fire Temple were slaughtered. Including the former member of the twelve guardians.” The old man told her, shocking Tsunade out of her usual board drawl.

“What?” all the sarcastic commentary fled from her mind, and she was now more interested in this old man from the Fire Temple.

“The perpetrators appear to be the two individuals in black cloaks and red clouds.” The old man continued further.

‘Akatsuki then.’ She thought. But outside, she asked, “And what makes you think that these individuals are responsible?”

“We saw them leaving the temple. In addition, the body of the leader of the temple, Chiriku, who had a quite a bounty on his head, is also missing.” The monk gave his reasoning.

Tsunade nodded, and motioned for the man to continue.

“We have brought this information, because in the land of fire, only leaf can deal with these individuals.” The old man concluded the subject of their visit.

“I understand. You have my thanks for bringing this in attention before me.” Tsunade said, and dismissed the monks.

She has some preparations to do, and a mission to assign.

* * *

(In a small town.)

After escaping from the Fire Temple or the temple of ancient traps as Naruto started to call it, Naruto arrived in this small unassuming town. Got himself a nice room in an inn, and was now practicing with his newly acquired sword, in a forest area with a river, not far from where he was staying currently.

“Say Yamato, you clearly sound like male…” Naruto asked his sword, and then trailed off before finishing the question.

“Yeeeees?” Yamato didn’t want to let go of this opportunity.

“Then, do the swords like you have genders?” unfortunately for the sword, Naruto was quick to recover his composure.

Naruto was thinking that this question was quite stupid, but he couldn’t contain himself from asking.

Contrary to what Naruto was thinking, this question has been asked to Yamato by his previous wielders, at least those who cared enough for to ask in the first place.

“Let me explain.” Now that the chance of embarrassing his wielder has slipped, Yamato turned serious.

“I am listening.” Naruto said, still practicing with the sword.

“All the swords like me do not have any specific gender. But when we grow a consciousness, we recognize ourselves with the gender we prefer.”

This was quite intriguing for Naruto. It would appear that his sword is quite knowledgeable as well as strong.

“So, according to what we perceive ourselves, that would imprint that gender on to us.” Yamato continued his explanation.

“So, you clearly perceive yourself as a male, so that nature over the time got imprinted on to you?”

“Correct.” The sword confirmed.

“Now I understand why you asked me that question.” Naruto suddenly stated.

“What question?” Yamato couldn’t remember the question his wielder was talking about.

“You know. All important question for a teenager?” Naruto reminded his sword.

“Ah that. You were quite lucky that it was me. I met a sword once, who was more perverted than me. And for the record, she was female.” Yamato clarified, and said the last part quite defensively.

“Not that surprising.”

After that conversation, there was a comfortable silence between the sword and his wielder. Which was only interrupted by Naruto’s still going on relentless practice.

“So, mind explaining why are you practicing so hard with me?” Yamato decided to ask.

“Why?” Naruto didn’t understand why his sword was asking him something like that.

“Because I haven’t met a single demon or human who after acquiring me, practiced as half as hard as you. They only relied on my power. Even my previous wielder whom you have defeated was guilty of that.” Yamato elaborated.

“Lazy ones, a lot of them. Did they honestly think they were invincible or something?” Naruto said, contemptuously.

“Well… something like that.” Yamato said in a bland tone.

“Let me tell you something, Yamato. I didn’t get this strong just by slacking off. Even to achieve my human to demon transformation, I have to do backbreaking training, different than the humans which were around me subjected to.” Naruto said, fired up for a speech.

“After acquiring you, I never considered the fact that I can simply use you like a brute. Besides, I spent years practicing and refining my techniques with my previous sword, even if it was not like you. There is no reason why I wouldn’t do same with you.” Naruto finished his speech.

“I understand.” Yamato said, respect coloring his voice

“Besides, to bring out your full potential, I must train with you as hard as I can. After all, it wouldn’t do me any good if I am not aware of your capabilities when I needed them most, right?”

“You can always ask me?” Yamato teased.

“True. But before acquiring you, I researched sentient swords like you. While most of their capabilities do remain same, they always have something new with a new wielder.” Naruto explained.

“Great. None of my previous wielders ever tried to discover those capabilities. I would be happy if you did.” Yamato said, displeased with his previous wielders.

“Of course! That is why I am training so hard.”

After seeing him perform some more sword maneuvers, Yamato have an idea.

“Naruto, why don’t you try that technique?” Yamato asked.

“Which technique?” Naruto questioned back.

“You know. The one which you used to kill the lich of my previous wielder?” Yamato reminded.

“An excellent idea! That particular bolder looks quite an attractive target.” Naruto agreed, and got ready to perform the technique.

He charged towards his targeted bolder, tried to slice it with Yamato and got success. After which, he created a concentrated blast of demonic energy, and fired at the sliced pieces of the rock, completely turning that boulder’s pieces in to powder.

“Hmmm. Quite a nice display.” Yamato praised.

“Agreed.” Naruto preened self-importantly.

After finishing that test, Naruto decided to go back to the town where he was staying at this moment, to get some rest, and to plan further.

Alas, it was not meant to be.

As soon as he saw someone walking towards him when he entered in to the proper town, he knew that his plan for resting were destroyed before they can be applied.

“Are you Mr. Uzomaki?” the man asked.

“Yes?” Naruto confirmed.

“I have a letter for you.” The man said, and pulled out an envelope.

After delivering that letter into his hands, the man left quickly.

“Who was that?” Yamato asked.

“One of the members of shinobi delivery.” Naruto replied, holding the letter in his hands.

“And those are?” Yamato continued to question.

“Well, those are postmen, except they are ninjas. Got any secret message? Want it to reach where only its intended recipient can get it? They are the one to call in those cases.” Naruto said like an advertiser.

“Well, wouldn’t other shinobi try to capture them?” Yamato just wouldn’t stop with questions.

Naruto chuckled. “I don’t pity whoever is foolish enough. These ninjas are not aligned with anyone, yet the ninja countries do use their services. You must understand how strong they would be. Even if you managed to capture one, they won’t break under any sort of torture either.”

“Sounds to be quite impressive for just near delivery service.” Yamato said, impressed.

“They are. In addition, no one has managed to sneak passed them a trapped letter to kill someone. So, if they are the one who have given you something, you can be assured that it is not a trap of some sort.”

“Nice. Now, mind opening that letter?” Yamato reminded the demon to the letter in his hands.

“Mmm.” Naruto hummed while observing the envelop of the letter. “Covered in quite several security seals. The matter must be important.”

Naruto was opening the letter, while Yamato waited impatiently. After all, this could be the start of a new quest.

Maybe it was not a good idea to learn about his wielder’s adventures?

Ah well. It’s not like anyone minded. Other than the NPC union. Bunch of annoying people. Invincible too. Getting stabbed by the legendary sword which could halve the amount of the HP of the main boss, yet only acting little bit winded?

The nerve!

“Hmhmhm. It would appear that we are about to embark on a new quest.” Naruto told his sword, while incinerating the letter.

“Yes. Where to?” Yamato asked, excited for this so-called new adventure.

“From where I have retrieved you. The Land of Fire.”

* * *

(The Land of Fire, near a bounty office.)

After receiving the news of the slaughter of the Fire Temple, —as people have started to call it—Hokage have employed her elite ninjas to fix the problem quickly.

By meaning fix quickly, either fined the Akatsuki members dead or alive. Mostly dead.

To that end, all of her elite Jonin as well as Chunin were scouring all over the land of Fire to find wherever Akatsuki might be hiding.

After finding several clues, and knowing the information that one of the people killed at the temple was quite a high bounty, led them to this place.

All was good up to that point, but as soon as they started to fight the two members of Akatsuki, they learned that all of their teamwork was proving to be quite useless.

And it was quite a bad idea to challenge two S rank ninjas with just a team of Chunin, and only one Jonin.

“Hahahaha! Hay Kakuzu, it would appear I will still get my sacrifices! Hahaha!” the one known as Hidan proclaimed.

Kakuzu, who was his partner, took an assessing glance of the shinobi who presumed they could stop them. That was the time when his eyes fell on a certain bearded Jonin.

“You. Aren’t you Asuma?”

“What of it?” Asuma answered frostily. He didn’t appreciate the beating these two have dished out to him and his team.

“You have quite a high bounty on your head.”

“No! Not other one!” Hidan whined.

“Don’t worry. Why don’t you slaughter the rest, while I take care of him?” Kakuzu offered generously.

“Hahaha! That is the reason why you still continue to live as my partner! For the lord Jashin!” Hidan exclaimed, while rushing to the team ten, and another helpless team of Chunin they brought with them.

‘Fool! You are literally immortal. Be glad that I don’t use you as my heart deposit!’ not letting his less than charitable thoughts about his partner show, he decided to make sure that Asuma didn’t escape from his grasp.

After all, he has just cashed in one big bounty. Who knows when he would get a next chance like this one?

“Now, are you prepared to die?” Kakuzu asked, while sending one of his several threads to capture the Jonin. ‘And give me a lot of money.’ He thought.

“As if. You won’t be able to kill me so easily.” While saying this, he burned those threads with a fire technique.

“Why don’t they die easily?” Kakuzu complained.

“Because it wouldn’t be much of a fight, if they did that would it?” a voice answered.

“What? Who?” both Shinobi said simultaneously.

“Guess?”

“Naruto.” Asuma have the misfortune to be already acquainted with that voice.

“Correct!” Naruto said happily. “Now, guess why I am here?”

“To kill us of course.” Asuma said in his usual bored tone.

“Why the hell I would bother with you?” he said to Asuma exasperated. “I am here to finish the people, who wouldn’t leave me alone.”

It didn’t take long for Kakuzu to ascertaining that the Uzomaki was here for them.

“Hmhmhm.” He chuckled confidently. “I remember Itachi’s report about you, brat. You honestly think you can beat us?”

“Think?” Naruto finally stepped out of shadows. “I am completely sure that I can kill you.”

Kakuzu was quite an old shinobi. He had lived for ninety years; most certainly than any shinobi ever hope to live.

He had faced several shinobi who were either stronger than him, smarter than him, yet he had beaten them all. He also managed to survive from the first Hokage, though admittedly, it was more dew to the gentle nature of the man than any skill of Kakuzu.

But the fact of the matter is, Kakuzu have more experience than any shinobi Naruto knows currently, or in past. He had managed to live from the era of legends. So, Naruto’s declaration didn’t faze him at all.

“You? Kill me? At this point, I didn’t know that my sense of humor is strong or not, but you’re thinking, that you could kill me, is very amusing.”

“It is? Well, you might have a reason to believe that. But whatever you think old man, it is none of my concern. You already know why I am here.” Naruto took a threatening step forward.

Having heard enough, Kakuzu sent several strands of his threads to kill Naruto, either dragging him towards himself, or impaling him, or choking him… there are a lot of ways to kill someone with threads.

But he suddenly remembers the orders of the leader of the Akatsuki, and decided to capture him.

No sense in angering someone like Pain.

Naruto was aware that during their conversation, Kakuzu was planning to sneak his threads to either kill him, or capture him.

So, it was not surprising as those threads got closer, his fist suddenly was lighted on fire.

“You should be happy old man; you will be my first living test subject of my powers.” While saying this, he burned those threads which got closer to him.

“Oy!” an offended voice said from somewhere. “Why aren’t you using me?”

“Well, you should remember the rules of combat; no demon should take out his or her weapon, if the opponent doesn’t warrant it.”

“Ah, and here I was looking forward to some destruction.” Yamato said in some disappointment.

“You will still get to witness it.”

“True. True.” The sword agreed.

Now, Kakuzu considers himself quite a patient ninja, the fact that he has a partner like Hidan should be testament to that, (not to mention, the fool just refuses to die!) But when he was trying to kill (capture!) someone, and that someone was having a casual conversation with something which he couldn’t even see, it made him feel things. More specifically, it makes him feel the feeling of rage.

Kakuzu did not appreciate feeling things.

“Pay attention, brat!” he grumbled, while sending increasing amount of threads.

“So, why won’t you talk to me mentally?” Yamato asked his wielder, helping him to ignore the old Shinobi.

“I don’t know, why don’t you?” Naruto asked in return.

“Well, you see, after being silenced in that temple for so long, I wish to make my voice spread far in this world.” Yamato said with an emotional speech.

“And I do that because not only it is fun to talk to an ancient demonic sword, which is so wise and powerful, it also annoys people, because I am snubbing them.” Naruto stroked his sword’s ego, and angered Kakuzu simultaneously.

“You brat!”

Meanwhile, Asuma was simply amazed to see what he was witnessing. After all, someone who entire shinobi village considered an idiot, was going against an S ranked criminal against whom Asuma himself was struggling few moments ago.

‘It has to be seen for believing it.’ Asuma thought, referring to the reaction when Tsunade explained the true skill of Naruto.

Naruto’s fist was still on fire, so he continuously burned the threads Kakuzu was sending his way.

“I must say,” Yamato said then. “I have never seen fire punch used in such a manner before.”

“Of course, you haven’t seen it. You were locked in a temple, remember?” Naruto said, sarcastically.

“Ah, and I just started to forget the whole experience. Why must you bring that up? Open old wounds?” Yamato asked, hurt.

Seeing that his opponent was not paying him any attention, and all of his efforts were proving to be useless, Kakuzu decided to bring out the big guns.

Meanwhile, seeing that both of his enemies were busy for the moment, Asuma decided to assess his team against Kakuzu’s partner Hidan.

But, both Kakuzu and Naruto completely ignored that fact...

“Look. The important point is,” Naruto was saying to his sword, and then suddenly Yamato interrupted him in the middle.

“Is he opening his back? Are those masks coming out of his body? Man! That is creepy.” Yamato said, mildly disturbed.

Naruto paid more attention when Yamato pointed what exactly is happening.

“You’re right. It is disturbing.”

“Ha! In the world of shinobi, there are only winners. No place for the people like you, who get disturbed so easily.” Kakuzu mocked his opponent.

“Old man, I am not disturbed by your technique, not in the slightest. But the fact is anyone who sees it for the first time will give same reaction as me.”

“Whatever. Now, you won’t be able to live long anyway.” Kakuzu dismissed what Naruto was saying entirely.

“Oh, so you brought some masks out of your body. Big deal— yikes!” Naruto have to move in hurry, and interrupt his mocking.

At first, Naruto was not worried about anything Kakuzu could do to him. After all, what could few masks accomplish while the ninja couldn’t do himself? But he got a very rood wake up call, in a form of a lightning blast right on his face.

“Not the face! Not the face!” he was saying constantly.

‘This is amusing.’ And all was back to normal for Kakuzu.

Still, amusement or not, his secret weapons were still proving to be useless in capturing or killing Uzomaki.

Then Kakuzu decided to use another one of his signature techniques. Not that anyone knows them as such; whoever faced him and forced him to use those techniques didn’t live to tell the tail. (First Hokage didn’t count. The man was a monster. That was Kakuzu’s opinion, and he was sticking to it.)

The masks cornered Naruto and the masks which were using the fire and wind element aligned themselves to his left and right, and Naruto was right in the middle of them.

And then, they fired both of their techniques, resulting in a fierce firestorm, which caught our hero in the middle.

Kakuzu was quite sure that the demon container will be quite damaged, if not outright dead.

Imagine his surprise when he found that Naruto not only didn’t die, he didn’t even suffer any damage, aside from his hare looking little bit singed.

“Could use some more improvement.” Naruto gave his review.

“How about this for an improvement!” Kakuzu roared and sent another trail of threads after the blond who just won’t die, capturing him and immobilizing him.

In his rage, Kakuzu even forgot that it was highly unusual that someone did let themselves be immobilized so easily. He even forgot that Shinobi are supposed to be calm and controlled.

Naruto decided to let the old man have his fun for this time, since he will be dead today.

Kakuzu aligned his fire, lightning, and wind masks together, and fired their techniques. Which created a large explosion of wind enhanced fire, and lightning, with Naruto caught in the middle.

When the smoke cleared, (any decent Shinobi would have taken advantage of that condition,) Kakuzu waited for the demise of his enemy.

“Haaaahahahaha!” sadly for him, that laughter was enough for him to recognize that his target was not only unharmed, but still in good shape.

* * *

(Meanwhile, with others…)

Seeing that Naruto and the other member of Akatsuki named Kakuzu were busy with each other, Asuma decided to help the other Chunin team for taking down the Kakuzu’s partner.

It was a good thing that he decided to help them. You just don’t leave a bunch of Chunin to fight an S ranked criminal.

First, they tried to hold him down by Shikamaru’s shadows, when that was accomplished, other two Chunin tried to stab at their enemy, fully expecting to fail. After all, such a simple thing could not work ever in the Shinobi world, right?

Sadly, for them, they succeeded, and got a nasty surprise in return.

“Oy! Do you realize how much that hurt? Now, give your souls to lord Jashin! Hahaha!”

“How? How isn’t he dead?” despite his intellectual capabilities, Shikamaru couldn’t process what he was seeing in front of himself.

Much to the annoyance of Hidan, Shikamaru and Asuma both managed to get back at the safe distance before he could do anything to them.

So, they tried another plan. Unfortunately, before that, Asuma did suffer an injury, a light scratch, but it was enough to seal his fate.

“Hahaha! My patience is rewarded. Now, we will get to experience the world of pain, together!”

Once again, Shikamaru tried and succeeded to hold the mad Shinobi with his shadows, but with the curse on Asuma as he learned earlier when he tried to burn Hidan after he created that strange circle, he got the injuries reflected back to him, so they could not do anything else.

But then suddenly, “Die, you brat!” Kakuzu screamed at the top of his lungs.

“You are more qualified than me, considering how long you have been living— yikes!” another voice stated, then the blast.

And someone jumped just behind Hidan, and pushed him towards the upcoming fire technique. It also brought him out of his circle, so Asuma didn’t got injured as well.

Hidan, on the other hand, got nasty burns by his partner’s own attack.

“Ahhh! Kakuzu! What the hell!” Hidan yelled.

“Why didn’t you get out of the way, you idiot!” Kakuzu berated his partner.

“You burned me, you god damn old fucker! Don’t tell me to shut up!” Hidan continued to yell, and curse.

While Kakuzu was dealing with his irate partner, another conversation was taking place.

“Naruto. What are you doing here?” the lazy Nara asked.

“Nothing, just taking care of some problems.” Naruto answered easily.

“What do you mean by problems?” Asuma asked, confused. “Noting the current moment, you’ve saved me twice.”

“Maybe. But it was never my intention to save you at all.” Naruto said bluntly.

“What?” Asuma took a step back in shock.

“Don’t act so shocked now. When I appeared, you were ready to kill me. Besides, the only reason why you managed to survive was because you ran, while I was dealing with your enemy.” Naruto continued his harsh criticism.

“Are you sure that was the only reason?” Yamato decided to chime in.

Shikamaru started to scan the surrounding area for a hidden person, who could be on Naruto’s side.

“Yes. That was the only reason, I am completely sure.” Naruto said sarcastically.

“Really?” Yamato wanted to be sure.

“Really. And stop talking out loud!” Naruto said in annoyance.

“Why?” Yamato asked in confusion.

“Because you are putting them on edge. And I wouldn’t want them interfering in my objective. I would really like to perform this extermination in peace.”

“Do you realize what exactly are you saying?” Yamato was amused that his wielder was using the words like ‘Extermination’ and ‘Peace’ in a same line.

“Right.” Naruto realized, and agreed.

By this point, Shikamaru was sure that whoever it was, they were hiding so completely that he couldn’t find them.

“Shikamaru, send the signal. We need backup now.” Asuma ordered.

“Understood.” The Nara brought out a tag, which he promptly throws on the ground, causing it to release a bright flash in the sky.

“Ooo! A flashing tag. Haven’t seen those for a while.” Naruto said like an excited child.

“What?” the Nara asked in confusion.

“Oh. You really thought that I don’t have any interest on the seals? Even considering what used to be sealed inside me? God when you say that out loud, it is so disturbing.” Naruto whispered the last part to himself.

“Agreed.” Yamato said.

Though it will be too soon if someone tried to seal him again. Keep the people hell-bent on sealing the sentient swords away from him for at least next ten thousand years.

“Be careful. Seal masters are quite hard to fight against.” Asuma advised.

‘Great. Not that the Shinobi are trained to fight against them or anything,’ Shikamaru thought sarcastically.

“Enough! I have literally thousand better things to do then argue with you all day long!” Kakuzu yelled, fed up with his partner.

“Oh yeah? I have thousands of souls to sacrifice to the lord Jashin. I don’t have the time to bicker with you as well!” Hidan, no less than Kakuzu, yelled just as loudly.

“Fine!” Kakuzu said.

“Fine!” Hidan said as well.

Suddenly, they both started to focus on the Chunin teams present there and of course Naruto.

“First of all, let’s take care of this brat.” Hidan proposed.

“Agreed.” After saying that, Kakuzu brings out all of his four masks.

“You know,” Naruto said while looking towards Hidan. “You are quite lucky that Orochimaru didn’t get his hands on you. Considering your immortality…” he trailed off.

Hidan shivered. “Let’s kill him quickly.” For the first time, Hidan decided that a quick kill was in order.

Without saying anything, Kakuzu roared his technique. “Fire style! Intelligent hard work.”

“What the hell kind of name is it? Fuck!” Naruto asked, and jumped away from the explosion of heat and death.

Earlier in the battle with Naruto, Kakuzu didn’t use the techniques which were the strongest of his elemental masks.

Even then, he was able to create firestorms. But now, this technique alone was enough to overwhelm his earlier attempts.

As soon as it collided with the ground where Naruto was standing, the small fireball which didn’t look like anything suddenly erupted in a fierce firestorm, which completely covered the area in which Naruto was standing previously.

“You missed!” Naruto informed his opponent, cheerfully.

“Grrr!” this time, his fire technique was enhanced with the wind style: pressure damage.

“You know, we have been here before. It didn’t work last time; it won’t work now. Here. Let me show you why.”

Not wanting to take more chances with the unpredictable demon, Kakuzu also added his lightning element in to the mix.

Naruto puts forward both of his hands, and started to focus on his palms, not at all concerned with the storm of fire, lightning, and wind which was approaching him fast.

Soon, an orb of water started to appear between Naruto’s palms which were increasing fast. When he felt that it was ready, he throws the ball of water right in the middle of the combination technique.

“Water Pulse!”

As soon as he released the ball of water, it increased, becoming double size of in comparison to its former size. And promptly exploded.

The explosion created such a wave of water; it completely drowned Kakuzu’s technique. Yes, there was lightening in the fire technique, but since Naruto was not in the contact of water, it didn’t do anything.

‘Impressive.’ All the ninjas present there thought.

Asuma was reminded of the techniques used by Kisame.

‘But it doesn’t look like any conventional Shinobi technique, let alone a water technique.’ He continued to think.

“I- impossible!” Kakuzu said in shock.

In all of his experience, Kakuzu have never seen his triple element combination taken out so thoroughly.

Before Kakuzu could try one more time to launch another of his techniques, Naruto disappeared from his sight, and targeted one of those masks.

“Fire punch!”

Boom!

Naruto connected viciously with the mask, which was using lightning techniques all this time. The mask was blown up in the bits in an instance.

“What!” Kakuzu choked, experiencing the backlash of one of his hearts being destroyed.

All of the leaf ninjas present there were also very shocked.

‘It is hard to believe that he is same Naruto as we used to know, even if we were briefed on his original personality.’ Shikamaru thought.

When Naruto tried to go for another one of Kakuzu’s masks, a scythe came out of nowhere, which he has to dodge.

“Hahahaha! Did you forget about me?” Hidan asked, quite enjoying himself.

“No.” he promptly blasted the lunatic in to the very far distance.

“Fuuuck!” with a twinkle in the sky, Hidan disappeared.

“Wind style: pressure damage! Fire style: intelligent hard work!” Kakuzu roared at the top of his only two lungs.

“I really don’t think that your hard work will work for you.” Naruto made fun of his technique’s names.

Since the loss of the lightning mask, the combination technique got little bit weaker. Naruto simply overwhelmed the technique with another one of his technique.

“You really are fond of these fire techniques of yours, aren’t you? Let me show you the true power of fire. I promise, I wouldn’t need any help with other elements for my attack.” Naruto said sincerely.

After saying that, the kanji for fire appeared, and fire started to be focused on Naruto’s body.

“Let’s see whether your technique is strong enough to take this or not! Fire blast!”

A blast of Naruto’s own size was launched from his body. To the people who were watching from far, it was almost like his entire body was containing that blast.

When the fire blast collided with the Kakuzu’s fire technique, it swiftly overwhelmed it, and the fire mask which was too late to get out of the range, was burned by the same element as it was using, causing another backlash for Kakuzu.

Kakuzu in a panic, tried to get those masks which were still remaining outside of his body to get back in to his body.

“You know, I haven’t used this since I killed that ANBU.” This statement of Naruto confirmed all the things they heard about him to the Shinobi present there, he killed Yamato.

As the wind mask continued to get closer to Kakuzu’s body, Naruto extended his finger, gathered energy on it, and fired.

“No!” Kakuzu yelled in protest.

The energy pierced the mask right in the middle, destroying it as well.

“Ahahaha! I really like that beam.” Naruto laughed in amusement.

“You are lucky that lizard mutant thing is not here to do the case of copyright on you.” Yamato interrupted his fun.

“Yeah, you are right.” Naruto agreed.

“Err. Aren’t you supposed to do something?” Yamato reminded.

“Oh yeah!”

Naruto shot like an arrow towards the water mask, but apparently someone decided to remind him of their existence.

“You forget about me again?” Hidan appeared again.

With that voice, a scythe came, and scored a shallow cut on Naruto’s cheek.

“Hahahahaha! You are as good as dead!” he laughed to his heart’s content, finally having some success.

“Somehow, I feel we can use it for advertising.” Yamato said after thinking a while.

“Don’t give them ideas.” Naruto told him sharply.

“Right!” Hidan didn’t even cared that his enemy was completely unaffected by his attempts.

Hidan was not affected by Naruto’s continued ignorance of him. But his sudden attack gave Kakuzu enough time that he managed to withdraw the only mask remaining.

‘I only have the water mask remaining, and the earth one is needed for my defense. My attack power is severely decreased. We must retreat.’ Kakuzu thought.

“Hidan, let’s go now!” he swiftly ordered.

“No!” his order was refused.

“You!” Kakuzu couldn’t believe the stupidity of his partner.

“I have the drop of blood I need; we can kill him.” Saying that, he brought the scythe close to his mouth, and licked the blood of Naruto off from it. He had already drawn another ritual circle.

“I think it is not healthy at all.” Naruto gave his unwanted advice.

“Looks disgusting as well.” Yamato gave his own opinion.

(Naruto Shippuden Soundtrack: Hidan.)

But before he could do anything, Hidan was feeling something. He suddenly started to scream.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Hahahahahaha!” Naruto laughed as Hidan started to scream louder and louder.

“What, is happening to him?” Kakuzu asked with some horror. He had never expected Hidan to scream due to pain of all things.

“Oh nothing.” Naruto answered his question, scaring him a little. “You see, the blood of a demon is quite potent in comparison to a human. Right now, he is experiencing something like lava flowing into his chakra network, and slowly mixing with his regular nervous system.”

All the Shinobi couldn’t manage to hide their shutter of terror.

“You!” Hidan exclaimed hoarsely. “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing, it is all the result of your own arrogance.” Naruto said contemptuously.

“K-Kakuzu, we have to run, now!” Hidan called urgently.

“What?”

“Lord Jashin is telling me to run. Now!” he said, more clearly.

Now it was getting more concerning. Not only the comments of the teenager were unsettling, what is he now, a true demon? But Hidan himself tells him to run.

“Fine.” He agreed. Besides, if Hidan would have agreed with him from the start, none of this would have happened.

Hidan managed to gather enough strength to get up from where he fell, and started to slowly retreat with Kakuzu.

“Oh no you don’t. You are holding something which I want.”

But before Naruto could give chase, more people showed up.

(Naruto soundtrack: Orochimaru’s theme.)

“God damn it!” he said furiously.

“Miss us?” a certain hissing voice remarked.

“I am sure you are glad to see, the gallant— “

“Oh, just shut up already.” the first voice said, annoyed.

“Oh look, who decided to show their faces. And just when I was about to take care of their enemies.” Naruto mocked.

“What?” the Toad sage asked in confusion.

“He single-handedly forced the Akatsuki members we were fighting to retreat. He was about to go after them, when you showed up.” Asuma gave a brief summary.

“Impossible. I refuse to believe.” Jiraiya said stubbornly.

“Why? Just because you didn’t teach me anything?” apparently, the demon was still quite sore about that.

“Oh, come on.” Jiraiya said in annoyance.

“You realize that your whining doesn’t make it any less true.” Even Orochimaru started to get on the mocking.

“You shut your mouth!” Jiraiya yelled furiously.

“It is nice to talk with you, but they really are getting away.” Naruto apologizes to his enemy, and planned to get to the people he was beating earlier.

“I think we won’t let you get away.” Orochimaru said.

“You can’t possibly be serious.” Naruto said, exasperation coloring his voice.

“Trust me, we are.” Jiraiya said.

“Good for you then. Because you rarely are serious.” Naruto insulted his former mentor.

“I feel as if he is insulting me.” Jiraiya said out loud.

“And what gave it away?” the demon asked sarcastically.

“You possibly couldn’t believe that you will beat both of us?” Orochimaru asked, complete confidence in himself and his idiot teammate.

“Believe? There wasn’t a doubt to begin with.” Naruto stated, completely sure of himself as well.

“Brat!” Jiraiya said, enraged.

“Get a hold of yourself. We must capture him.” Orochimaru stated. “And Asuma, take your team and the remaining Shinobi squad with you to deal with the Akatsuki members.” The Sannin gave his order.

“Understood.” Asuma agreed, and left with the rest of the squad.

If someone told him one month ago that he will take orders from Orochimaru in the field, Asuma, hell. Any Shinobi of leaf would be laughing. Yet, that is exactly what is happening.

“Oh? Want to deal with me alone? Or you want me to yourself. I refuse to participate in the threesome if he is here.” Naruto pointed towards Jiraiya.

“What? No!” Orochimaru denied.

“Err.” Jiraiya began awkwardly. “You two have something going on?”

“No.” Orochimaru gritted his teeth and replied. “It is something which he like to do to rile me up.”

“Correct!” Naruto answered.

“Phew. For a moment there, I thought I have to find a new wielder.” Yamato stated in relief.

“Ah, Yamato, you wound me.” Naruto said, hurt.

“Not exactly. I refuse to be wielded by someone with whom my beliefs do not align with.” Yamato clarified.

Meanwhile, the two Sanin were having the conversation of their own.

“So, any last-minute advice?” Jiraiya asked.

“Watch out for his illusions.” Orochimaru answered.

“You know, three years ago, I would have never thought that he would have any talent for Genjutsu beyond dispelling them.”

“Well, not only he has the talent, he can use them quite well.” Orochimaru said.

“Then we better not give him any chance to put one on us.” Jiraiya said, with a strong resolve.

“Correct. Get him!” Orochimaru agreed, and suddenly attacked.

Orochimaru summoned his Kusanagi, Jiraiya created a Rasengan in his hand, and Naruto got tense in preparation.

‘Timing is going to be important here.’ He thought.

As Jiraiya started to get closer to Naruto for the first attack, while Orochimaru was little bit slower, Naruto started to calculate.

‘Not now, not now, there!’ he said in his mind, victoriously.

Naruto raised his right hand, pointed two fingers towards the two Sanin, and suddenly, there was blackness.

* * *

(Some unknown place.)

(Pokémon anime soundtrack: Bill’s lighthouse theme.)

One moment, Jiraiya’s target was standing clearly without moving, and another moment, there was sudden darkness. He stumbled and nearly halted letting go of his Rasengan.

Behind him, Orochimaru was on the same state as his partner.

“Orochimaru, can you hear me?” the gallant sage asked.

“Yes.” Was the simple answer of the snake Sanin.

It was absurd. They never expected something like this. Not only they were not seeing any light, they have to find and keep track of each other by sound.

Meanwhile, their target was observing them from a little bit distance.

“Mmm. A bit much, I think.” he thought out loud, while watching both men stumbling in the darkness.

“Nah, let them stumble little bit more. It builds character.” His sword has a different opinion.

“Getting killed also builds character.” Naruto said completely serious.

“Right.” Yamato didn’t have anything else to say about that.

“But still, they are just humans. It wouldn’t be fun this way. Maybe…” he decided to do something different.

“What are you thinking?” the sword asked curiously.

“Just watch.” His wielder answered.

Then, the scenery changed from no light and complete blackness, to some moonlight and black and red background.

“What? Did we change the places again?” Jiraiya asked.

“No. I think it is a Genjutsu.” Orochimaru answered distractedly, while thinking when exactly the demon had a chance to put both of them on one.

“Ding, ding, ding, Got it in one go.” Naruto said cheerfully, while appearing next to the two Sanin.

“Uzomaki. You really think you will be able to keep us here?” Orochimaru asked.

“Well, you haven’t broken out until now, so…” Naruto trailed off.

“Ha! It wouldn’t take us much to break out of here.” Jiraiya boasted.

“Oh really? The only reason why I reduced the intensity of my technique, so you two can at least do something. Otherwise, I was enjoying myself watching you two stumbling blindly.” Naruto chuckled and answered Jiraiya’s boast.

“You bastard!” Orochimaru said furiously.

“My parents were married, thank you very much. You can ask Jiraiya for the confirmation.” The demon said sarcastically.

“Unfortunately.” Jiraiya said, as if he needed a confirmation.

“By the way, haven’t you seen where exactly you are?” Naruto asked both of them, as if he was introducing them to a new place.

Orochimaru takes a look around, and got a surprised look.

“How could you cast that technique!” he asked in surprise, and alarm.

“Tsukuyomi.” Jiraiya said, disbelievingly.

‘Haaaaahahahahaha! He thinks that I casted Tsukuyomi! Hahaha!’ the demon laughed in his head.

“You can blame your Uchiha criminal for that. Apparently, he decided to cast the technique on me once.” Naruto said, not letting his internal amusement show.

“Not possible. You need a Sharingan for that.” The snake Sanin denied.

“Interesting that you mentioned those eyes,” Naruto removed his sunglasses, and there were red eyes with spinning tommo staring at them.

“Impossible.” Orochimaru and Jiraiya both said in shock.

“Haaaaahahahahaha! Look at your faces, priceless.” After his laugh, his eyes turned back to their gold color, and he put his glasses back.

“If you were just making fun of us, then how did you cast the Tsukuyomi on us?” Jiraiya questioned.

“Oh, for the love of, you are still on about it? Haven’t you understood it yet? It is not Tsukuyomi! There! I said it. Happy?” Naruto said, peeved that they refused to recognize his technique different than the Uchiha clan.

“You are lying. No illusion can be strong as Tsukuyomi.” Orochimaru said, with complete surety.

“Well, that is your Uchiha crush is talking. Just because you haven’t seen something by yourself, does not mean it doesn’t exist. “

“Uchiha crush?” Orochimaru said, too much enraged to yell.

“To be fair, you do have an Uchiha crush.” Jiraiya couldn’t resist himself.

“Shut up!” Orochimaru really didn’t like this.

“Let me explain.” Naruto interrupted their argument.

“Here comes the cliché of explaining your technique to your enemies.” Yamato ribbed.

“Ah, come on. It’s not like I use same things all the time.” Naruto said.

“True. True. But you are quite partial to fire punch.” Yamato agreed.

“Why wouldn’t I be? It is fire punch! As in a punch which is on fire!” Naruto answered his sword.

“Ahem. So, you see, since Itachi used his Tsukuyomi on me, that was the inspiration for this illusion. What he says? Oh yeah. ‘I control time, space, and the mass of objects.’ Well, to be fair, I don’t control the time.” Naruto explained, after composing himself due to the argument with his sword.

“But that is a big flaw.” Jiraiya pointed out.

“You would think that, wouldn’t you? While I admit that as we are speaking, the time here and time outside of this illusion is going on the same rate, it is not as big deal as you make it out to be. Besides, for making this so powerful, I did need to sacrifice something. I chose time, because it didn’t have any immediate bearing on the technique.” The demon gave his reasoning.

“But then how do you consider this technique different then the Tsukuyomi? It is just missing one part anyway.” Orochimaru asked, fishing for more information.

“Well, removing time allowed me to remove several weaknesses, and refine the illusion quite nicely. You see, I can cast this technique without eye contact, it doesn’t turn me blind slowly, and I can snare multiple people at once. Not to mention, since the part of time was empty, I can use that part for even tighter control over the space and mass of objects on this illusion.” Naruto explained nicely, too nicely in his sword’s opinion.

“Well, you forgot about another weakness.” Orochimaru said, trying to be mysterious.

“I did? Please enlighten me.” Naruto asked mockingly.

“When you put multiple people in one Genjutsu, the chances of breaking out increase as well.” He explained.

Understanding what his partner was referring, Jiraiya put his hand on Orochimaru’s shoulder, and Orochimaru did the same. They both channeled their chakra in each other, and simultaneously said, “Release!”

Once they both opened their eyes, they were expecting to see themselves on the clearing where they arrived at.

Instead, they were greeted by the same black and red background.

“How? We should be able to break out of the illusion!” Jiraiya asked.

This was absurd. Even if the boy was stronger than they could have ever known, they were still legendary Sanin, dammit! It should not be much hard for them to overwhelm a Genjutsu, especially together.

“By the way, I would like to remind you when you were standing there with closed eyes; I could have killed you right on the spot. Elite ninja’s my ass.” Naruto couldn’t believe that these were the people who are the veterans of two wars. Maybe the time of peace has dulled their senses?

Or maybe they still do not consider him a threat, it probably didn’t sink yet.

Noticing they were still in shock; Naruto couldn’t contain himself.

“Oh, for the love of, you saw my transformation, didn’t you?” Naruto suddenly questioned Orochimaru.

He nodded, still in shock.

“Then you would know more than anyone in this world, that I am no longer a human. Instead, I am a demon. And demons do not have any Chakra; instead, they have demonic energy. Some people would like to call it yoki, but that is just ancient speech. And how exactly the Genjutsu work?” Naruto tried to lead them to the realization.

“By injecting the chakra in the chakra system of the opponent, and manipulating it… oh.” Orochimaru realized.

“Exactly.” Naruto was happy that at least they weren’t stupid enough to not get the answers if he himself was pointing them towards the answers.

“What?” Jiraiya asked, still not getting it.

“Sometimes, I have to ask, why you were his teammate again?” Naruto asked Orochimaru.

“Shut up.” Jiraiya said, in a tone which was totally not whining.

“Whatever. You aren’t the one who managed to connect the dots anyway. Fine, I will explain, for your benefit. You see, you can’t use demon energy same way as chakra. If I were to inject my energy in to your chakra systems, you will melt from inside out.” The demon said grimly.

“Then how— “Jiraiya tried to ask another question, but was interrupted in the middle.

“Getting there! But since demonic energy is more potent than chakra, I can actually use it to form illusions without injecting in someone. In short, I can form illusions just by my energy.” Naruto gave more clear explanation.

“Kukuku. But it probably cost you much more than our methods.” Orochimaru mocked the method, seeing it as more inefficient.

“For you, maybe. But for someone like me, it is nothing.” Naruto waved him off.

“Right. Being demon and all, your reserves must be higher than human reserves. And even by that logic, you always have the absurd reserves of chakra as a human.” Apparently, Jiraiya can arrive on the conclusions by himself.

“Correct.”

“No wonder that we weren’t able to get out of the illusion.” Orochimaru said, finally understanding.

“Say, you other than considering me getting on my own as a betrayal— “Naruto began saying, but was cut off in the middle by Jiraiya…

“It is a betrayal!”

“You are awfully not offended by my human to demon transformation.” He finished, completely ignoring Jiraiya.

“Well, considering what kinds of things I have done to both myself and others, I really don’t have much room to criticize.” Orochimaru admitted.

“There are humans whom I would consider more of demon than you.” Jiraiya said honestly.

‘Too bad he doesn’t know your future plans.’ Yamato said in Naruto’s mind.

‘Right.’ Naruto replied, with a heavy tone.

“Yeah, nice to hear that. By the way,” he trailed off before completing.

Suddenly, there was a light flashed in their eyes, as if the light of the sun was focused on their eyes.

“Solar flare!” the demon suddenly exclaimed.

“Arg! Damn brat! It is just as worse as walking on Orochimaru naked!” Jiraiya proclaimed.

“Oh god, the horror!” apparently, the same thing is also too much for Orochimaru.

* * *

(Back to the real world.)

The Genjutsu was released; both of the Sanin were blinded for few moments, taking advantage of these moments, there target escaped.

* * *

(With two escaping Akatsuki members.)

The team ten and their remaining Chunin back up who weren’t killed by Hidan did at least start to get close to the escaping S rank threats.

But Shikamaru’s biggest concern was not whether they will manage to catch up with the enemy or not, but how exactly are they going to take them down?

And what’s to say the Sanin will manage to hold Naruto? What then. Akatsuki were terrified of him by the time they escaped, which proved that they didn’t have a chance against him.

Meanwhile, the said Akatsuki members were in the middle of their own discussion.

“Did we leave him behind?” Hidan asked, grimacing in the pain.

“I don’t think he is anywhere near us, otherwise, he would have caught up to us.” Kakuzu answered.

“Oy, those weaklings from leaf— “Hidan was interrupted in the middle…

“Forget about them. They are not the biggest threat to us right now. But how are your injuries?” Kakuzu assured, and asked.

Hidan winced.

“Maybe could go for a little bit longer.” Hidan answered, unusually serious for him.

“Well, let’s just hope that Uzomaki doesn’t appear behind us suddenly. But the leaf team? Even now, I am enough to wipe them out.” Kakuzu said, completely dripping with confidence.

“Of course, I wouldn’t appear behind you,” a sudden voice stated, and in the middle of the flames Naruto appeared. “It’s because I am in front of you two idiots.”

Kakuzu and Hidan halted immediately.

“Arg!” Hidan suddenly screamed, and fell down the ground.

(Naruto Shippuden soundtrack: Hidan’s theme.)

“What’s happening to him?” Kakuzu asked with some concern.

Maybe not because Hidan is his partner, but more because his chances of escape will be lower.

“When you absorb a demon’s blood, and you get closer to that demon, you will get this reaction. As the person gets closer to that particular demon, the damage which is being suffered also increases.” Naruto explained.

Kakuzu couldn’t do anything, other than watching Hidan squirm.

“Sigh.” Naruto sighed, and extended his hand.

He concentrated, and focused on Hidan.

“Not yet, not yet, not yet, there. Soul Extraction!”

He pulled out a glowing ball from Hidan’s body, which promptly turned Lifeless. He then launched that ball towards the sky.

“What did you do to him?” Kakuzu said, with some poorly hidden horror.

“Pulled out his soul. If he ever met me in hell, and remembers me, he would thank me. That is not an existence someone should endure.” Naruto said solemnly.

“What exactly was up with him?” Yamato asked.

“Apparently, this Jashin is appeared to be a local demon, who most likely granted his blood as a blessing. It bounded his follower’s soul to their bodies, and his will.”

“Damn!” even Yamato was surprised by that.

“Exactly.”

(End soundtrack.)

“Look, this is very interesting and all, but I’ve got to escape.” Kakuzu said.

“You won’t be able to. And you know that.” Naruto wouldn’t let him escape.

Kakuzu tried to move with extremely fast speed, just to see whether Uzomaki will go through his word or not.

Naruto didn’t pay much attention to the escaping bounty hunter, instead, he bent down, and removed Hidan’s Akatsuki ring.

“Found one.” He said joyfully.

He then teleported in the flames, and appeared just in front of Kakuzu again, halting his run.

“Why won’t you leave me, Uzomaki!” the bounty hunter asked, with some frustration.

“Because you hold something which I want. Fire blast!”

Done with the game of cat and mouse, Naruto attacked so suddenly that Kakuzu didn’t have any chance to defend himself. His remaining two hearts were also destroyed in the blast, and rest was taken care by the flames.

Shikamaru heard a blast, and broke away from the team formation. Asuma couldn’t stop him in enough time.

By the time he arrived, there was nothing left of Kakuzu’s body aside from ashes, and a demon with three rings.

“Unify.” The demon ordered.

Suddenly, the three rings became one.

“You know, hiding that ring was a great idea. No one would realize that you have it with you.” Yamato praised.

“Right.”

“Except for me.” The Nara proclaimed.

“You really thought that I didn’t sense you?” Naruto asked sarcastically.

“You were aware all the time I was here. I am not surprised.” And by his tone, Naruto could say that Nara was truly not surprised.

“Is that so? Tell me, what is the little deer going to do?” Naruto asked, mocking the side profession of Nara clan.

“Well, to start with, when you were busy in conversation with whoever is invisible, I captured you in my shadow technique.” Shikamaru said, with a tone of extreme satisfaction.

Now, Shikamaru was completely aware of his strengths and weaknesses. So, he knew that it would not be surprising for him if Naruto didn’t stay in his clutches for too long, and even struggled a little.

Other than some tensing, and otherwise relaxed Naruto was also expected.

But that frightening grin which was slowly spreading on his face was completely out of the expectation for the Nara.

“You by this point are already briefed by the Sanin what exactly I am?” the demon suddenly questioned.

“Yes. What it has to do with my shadows?” Shikamaru asked. ‘I must keep my concentration. I can’t let him trip me like that.’

“Your clan’s shadow manipulation, it is quite a nice piece of work. Using dark energy to bind, restrict, or strangle someone.” Naruto was enjoying himself. It is very rare that opponents provide him with such opportunities.

“Your point?” Shikamaru asked warily.

“My point is, it uses dark element as its base. And no, I don’t mean that dark energy you people think is the representing of good and evil. I mean, dark element, which is around us all the time.”

Shikamaru nodded in surprise. He never thought that Naruto would one day tell him the workings of his own techniques in such details, at his own clan techniques at that!

“Then just like all elemental techniques, it has its own rules. In our case, whoever has the greater control of the dark element will dominate, without any exceptions.”

Realizing what Naruto was insinuating, Shikamaru tried to release his shadow bind. But once someone gets trapped, they wouldn’t be able to get out of there, unless they are stronger, or the person who set the trap would let them go.

“Ah, too late.” Naruto said in a pitying tone.

“Poor guy,” Yamato said.

“Don’t weep for him, Yamato.”

Shikamaru gasped. After hearing that name.

“What did you do to your squad leader!” the Nara suddenly questioned.

“Who?”

“The Jonin who went with you on the heaven and earth bridge.” The Nara elaborated.

“Oh, him. Didn’t Sakura tell you? I am sure all the Shinobi would have been briefed on that one. I killed him, simple.” Naruto said as if he was talking about yesterday’s weather.

“Then why did you used his name?” the Nara was not convinced.

“Oy! What I hear about a human using my illustrious name?” Yamato was quite proud of himself, and he really does not appreciate things like that.

“Don’t worry. He was just sent at a place, to make sure that I am chained. But I killed him, and retrieved you.” Naruto said as if calming down a child.

“Oh. Good job.” The sword praised.

“Thanks. Anyway, you really don’t have time to ask questions, Nara. I am about to teach you the uses of dark element, which even your ancestors couldn’t no.”

“What?” somehow, Shikamaru have the feeling that these classes are not going to be beneficial for him.

“Oh, like I could make you do this,” Naruto started to concentrate.

Shikamaru raised his right hand, (unwillingly,) and waved towards the demon, as if they were old friends.

“Or this,” he pointed his index finger.

This time, Shikamaru raised his left hand, and gave thumbs up. Naruto tried to make him smile, but due to his struggling, came out as a half grimace and half twisted smile.

“And, we have the new member of the club youth! Hahahahaha!” the demon laughed in amusement.

It was very unbelievable for Shikamaru. Even if the Nara, no matter how skilled they are, captures their enemies in their shadows, they wouldn’t be able to control them to such an extent.

But here he was, just experiencing exactly that!

“Shikamaru!” one of the Chunin who came along with team Asuma on this mission approached them at this moment.

“No! Stay back!” Shikamaru cursed at the poor timing of the Chunin.

“Ah! A new test-subject!”

To his horror, the Nara found himself moving faster than he ever thought that he could move, and before the poor Chunin could react, he was already in an inverted shoulder lock.

After Shikamaru jumped in the air, and slammed his head after twisting in a half a circle in the air, the Chunin saw only darkness.

“You should be really grateful. You would have never been able to use Tijutsu like this, if it weren’t for me.” Naruto lectured.

“Shut up, and release me!” the Nara said, which sounded like ungratefulness to Naruto.

“Why do they always ask that? Do they honestly think that they would be let go?” Yamato really didn’t understand that habit.

“I don’t know? Maybe in a futile hope that the inner kindness of that person who is holding them would suddenly wake up, and they would let go?” the demon tried to explain the said habit.

“Thanks for the explanation.” That cleared the matters for the sword.

“It’s what I do.” The demon said loftily.

“Shikamaru, the team,” another Chunin arrived. Before he could finish explaining that the rest of the team would be soon at their current location, the Chunin was interrupted by Naruto.

“Ah! Another volunteer!” it truly is a wonderful day!

“No. stay back!” Shikamaru cursed the bad training for these Chunin.

Or maybe he was just too harsh on them, just because he himself is a captive?

Before that Chunin could do anything, he found that Shikamaru was holding him in a headlock. Then he drove his head to the ground.

“And we have DDT.” Naruto announced.

“Did you hear that sound?” Yamato asked.

“I know right? I heard from other people that it sounds like melon has popped, but apparently it is true!”

“You monster.” Shikamaru said venomously.

“No, no. don’t use those dramatic words yet, you will need them when I will do something really nasty to you all. So, until then, save your words, and energy.”

While Naruto and Shikamaru were busy in their discussion, well, more along the lines of Naruto being busy gloating, and Shikamaru being busy in spewing insults at him, since that was the only thing he could do to him at this point, Asuma arrived before Ino and Choji. He saw the knocked out Chunin, and for some reason, Shikamaru was in Naruto’s grasp.

So, he decided to use the real ninja skills. As in sneak upon his enemy and take him by surprise.

Meanwhile, Naruto was just finishing answering the latest insults of Shikamaru, that he suddenly senses killing intent behind him.

He turned around, consequently forcing the Nara to do so as well, Yamato appeared on his hand, and Asuma got a surprised look on his face.

“Nooo! Stop, Sensei!” the Nara tried to warn.

But the Jonin was going too fast to stop now.

With a squelch sound, he was impaled on Naruto’s sword.

“Oops, didn’t mean to do that. You shouldn’t surprise me like that.” Naruto chided.

He pulled Yamato out of his chest, and with a small force, pushed his body away. He also pushed and pulled Shikamaru there.

“No, Sensei…” the Nara said, heartbroken.

“Honestly, I was having so much fun; I really don’t see why he had to do that.” The demon said in disappointment.

“Shut up!” Shikamaru had enough.

“Yeah, whatever. Just for your information, I really didn’t want to kill him… yet.”

Shikamaru ignored him.

“I still remember the first time we met, Sensei......” at this moment, Shikamaru didn’t care that he had completely let down his guard in front of the enemy.

“Whelp! Time to send you to your teacher…” Naruto said, as if performing a really dull Daly job.

“No!” surprisingly, the one who stopped him was Yamato.

“Why?” Yamato better have an explanation.

“You can’t kill him.” The sword proclaimed.

“Why not? Besides, what the hell do you care whether I kill him or not.” Where is this coming from?

“I don’t. But the rules of the villain code state that when a good guy is weeping over his fallen comrade, the villain must stand there, and do nothing.” The sword gave his reasoning.

“That’s stupid. Who the hell created such a stupid rule!” Naruto ranted.

“Not me,” Yamato said sadly.

“Say Yamato, according to the villain code, I am a villain, right?” the demon questioned.

“Right.” The sword confirmed.

“Then that’s mean I am a bad guy. And bad people do not obey any rules.” The demon continues to apply logic.

“I guess?” the sword said in confusion.

“That means I can kill him!” he said happily.

“Wait, stop!” Yamato didn’t want to find out what kind of punishments would they both have to suffer, because they broke the code.

‘Aaahhh!’ Naruto gave a wordless scream inside his head, as he started to rush towards Shikamaru. But suddenly, he saw something.

‘What? Is that a person?’ Naruto thought, while observing a figure which was hidden in quite a shadow, the figure appears to be unconscious.

‘I don’t know, why don’t you go out and check?’ Yamato retorted telepathically.

Abandoning the plan to kill Nara, Naruto approached to the place where that figure was laying down.

He reached close to that person, and recognized them. They appeared to be a woman.

“Yugito? What is she doing here?” the demon asked himself.

“Look at her forehead.” Yamato pointed.

Naruto saw what was on her forehead, and recognized what exactly it was.

“Chakra suppression? No. something more, something which suppresses her beast as well.” Naruto broke down the properties of the seal.

“From what you have told me, this woman was probably captured by those guys you killed earlier.” Yamato said.

“Yes, but I told him to protect her, who could have done that?”

Three seconds of silence.

“Naruto have the traitors in his ranks,” Yamato sang.

“Not for long.” He said darkly.

Just as he was done removing the seal on Yugito’s forehead, several people arrived.

“Asuma sensei!” the Akimichi screamed after seeing his instructor laying down dead.

“Nooooo!” Ino screamed, which was highly unpleasant for Naruto’s ears.

“Great, the useless cavalry arrived.” He said with annoyance dripping in his voice.

“You won’t get away with this, Naruto!” the voice of the toad sage said.

Unfortunately, his partner Orochimaru didn’t have such a confidence about the situation.

But then he saw someone on Naruto’s arms.

‘Could it be the target of Akatsuki? Hmm! If we could take her as a hostage…’ the Sanin continued to think.

“You know, I would love to play with you guys, but I really have some matters to consider. And people to kill. So, later.” With that, Naruto decided to retreat.

“No. stop him!” Jiraiya ordered.

But before anyone could reach him, Naruto teleported in the flames, and disappeared.

“Dammit!” The Sanin cursed.

“We can’t do anything about it. We were here to find who slaughtered Fire Temple monks, remember?” Orochimaru surprisingly consoled.

“It would have been nice if we could get him though,” then he turned towards the team ten, who were morning their dead sensei and his eyes softened.

“Let’s returned to the village.” Jiraiya said dejectedly.

Orochimaru agreed, and after waking up the two Chunin who were knocked out by Uzomaki, they started their path towards the Hidden leaf village.

* * *

(In the Hidden cloud village.)

After escaping from the Hidden leaf village team, Naruto teleported to the land of lightning. Arriving to the village in the mountains, which is absolutely not hidden. The demon hasn’t understood these people’s obsession with the concept of hidden villages, especially when they were failing at it in such a spectacular fashion.

“Knock, knock, bitches!” a sudden voice echoed all over the village.

The shout caused immediate reaction among the Shinobi of the Hidden cloud.

“Lord Raikage, did you heard that?” one of the guards of Raikage asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard that. Let me go deal with him.” He promptly broke the wall of his office, and get out of that way.

Everyone present there sighed.

“I am surprised that we still have a budget.” Another ANBU said.

“Well, I heard some roomers.” One of the Jonin said.

“Oh? Spill.” Rest of the people said.

“I heard that the Tsunade the Hokage of the Hidden leaf village breaks desks.”

“That is nothing. I heard that if angered, the Kazekage is known to wreak havoc upon his village.” Another Ninja said, trying to out done the first one.

“That is nothing. I once heard that the Tsuchikage actually destroyed his office out of anger.” Another Jonin said.

“Really? I know for a fact that the Mizukage regularly threatens her ninjas with death threats if annoyed.” One more ANBU said.

“Maybe we shouldn’t give them that much paperwork?” the new in the ranks of the guards said.

Three seconds of silence.

“Nah!” all of them said together.

* * *

(In the afterlife.)

“You god damn bastards! Just get in here afterlife, sooner or later you have to get here, then you will know the fires of my revenge!” Sarutobi roared.

“He’s on again.” Hashirama said.

Tobirama sighed.

* * *

(Back to the real life, I mean plot.)

Meanwhile, on the gates of the Hidden cloud village, Naruto was watching the chaos he has caused.

“Do you really like to spread chaos and mayhem everywhere? Can’t you appreciate the peace and tranquility of this place?” Yamato preached.

“What are you? Some sort of sage? Besides this entire place is made for war. What does it matter if I cause a little bit of chaos and mayhem?” the demon questioned back.

“Truthfully? It doesn’t matter. Hahahahaha! I was just jerking your chain.” The sword laughed.

“Ha! A good one.” The demon appreciated the joke.

“Oy Uzomaki! How did you remember the path to this village today?”

“Ah! Raikage, my good friend. Not only I was successful in finding the thing which I wanted to find, I even killed two thorns in my side.” Naruto informed him cheerfully.

“Indeed?” he saw the person on Naruto’s arms. “What Yugito is doing with you though?”

“That’s the problem you see.” Naruto stated darkly. “Apparently, she was with those Akatsuki members whom I thrashed.”

“Impossible! I explicitly gave her no mission at all, whether inside or outside of the land of lightning, or just the village itself!” Raikage’s eyebrows started to twitch violently, a sign of his increasing anger.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13.  
Find and eliminate the traitors.

Alternative title: success or failure of the mission.

(Inside of the Raikage’s office.)

“I refuse to believe it!” Raikage exclaimed which feels like the fourth time to Naruto.

“Why? You are running a ninja village. Why can’t you believe that you have some pricks who thought it would be a good idea to go behind your back?” Naruto retorted, Yugito being sent to the hospital for a checkup already.

“But you don’t get it. I am running this village, about closer to 20 years, and if something like that happens, do you realize that I will have a massive military revolt in my hand!” the Raikage slammed his hand to his desk, breaking it into splinters, making all of his guards wince due to the fate of the object.

“Not if I do something.” The teenage demon said.

“What?” Raikage asked flatly.

“Well, I can always find those who were the part of the conspiracy, and then you can deal with them however you feel like.”

Raikage took a moment to thought about it, and also cool his head. The man has some serious anger problems.

“Fine. Uzomaki, I order you to find and bring the conspirators to me.” He ordered, as if he was the one to come up with the idea.

“You realize I am not one of your Shinobi?” Naruto remarked.

“Get to the work already.” Raikage ignored his remark.

“Fine, fine. I swear you will owe me a drink after this.” Muttering various things, Naruto walked out of the office.

* * *

(In the Leaf village, Hokage’s office.)

“Wait back up a little. So, you were barely holding on, then suddenly Naruto arrived to save you?” Tsunade was just getting the details of the mission.

“I really don’t think he was there to save anyone. I did question him about it, his reply was that the only reason why he was there so he could kill two Akatsuki members.” Jiraiya told them.

“Still, two Akatsuki members dead, and we only lost one Jonin.” Orochimaru said.

“Sure, if you don’t forget the fact that person who essentially killed the said members was also our enemy.” The fact that Orochimaru was taking the death of Asuma so lightly was not sitting well with Jiraiya.

“Enough. In short, my order still stands. This is just another proof that we can’t take Naruto without a full team of Jonin.” Tsunade reasserted her order.

“But the problem is, we have to deal with both him, and Akatsuki.” Jiraiya said.

“Maybe we will not have to deal with both of them.” Orochimaru said thinking about something. “Remember what he told us? He is about to kill all the Akatsuki members.”

“And if he doesn’t, he is still strong enough that he would weaken the organization for us.” Jiraiya caught on.

“Wait and see it is then.” Tsunade finished their thought process.

* * *

(In the Hidden rain.)

“Kakuzu and Hidan were dead after that.” Zetsu was finishing his report.

“And you couldn’t retrieve their rings?” Pain asked, displeased.

“No. instead, Uzomaki did something strange with them. He somehow managed to combine both of those rings to another ring on his finger,” The plant... thing explained.

“That is concerning.” Madara couldn’t help but say that.

Then they started to plan about how to deal with this new development, since everyone who mattered in the Akatsuki organization was present there.

“What we need to think about is, I heard Uzomaki mentioning that nine tails no longer exist inside him anymore.” Zetsu reported another piece of concerning information.

“There are two possibilities. Either he is lying, or he is telling the truth.” Madara gave his verdict.

“Hm, until we can confirm it then, we can’t make any conclusions.” Pain gave his own thoughts.

“What do you think his next move will be?” Zetsu questioned both of them.

“He most likely will attack us, since we are the biggest threat to whatever future plans he has.” Madara answered.

“Hmph! Let him come then. He will finally realize that a demon doesn’t defy the god.” After saying that, Pain left abruptly.

“I swear, giving him a god complex was the biggest mistake of my life.” Madara muttered to himself.

* * *

(Three days later, at the Hidden cloud.)

Raikage was doing the paperwork of the day, (as well as lifting heavy paperweight, which was heavier than any paperweight had any right to be,) that suddenly…

“Yo! Raikage, how you’re doing?” Naruto appeared, and greeted him in the hammiest way possible.

“What the hell, Uzomaki!” Raikage did not appreciate the greeting.

Why exactly would he do something like that? You might be thinking.

The simple reason was, Naruto kicked the door so hard, that it broke from its hinges, causing various ninjas present in that office to go alert.

“Say, Naruto,” his ever-curious sword asked. “Why do you call him Raikage?”

Raikage did not react to the question.

“You see, there is an amusing situation with that.” Naruto started to answer, barely restraining a grin.

He did react to this, mainly getting so angry, that he started to heat up like a pressure cooker, with sound effect present as well.

“Naruto?” he said warningly.

“His actual name is A.” Naruto finished, letting the grin show up on his face.

“Wait really?” Yamato was having difficulty believing that.

“Yeah.” Naruto confirmed, still amused.

“Hmhmhm. No need for worrying about the capital mistakes then.” Yamato chuckled.

“Haaaahahahahahaha!” both the sword and the wielder laughed.

Apparently, Raikage reached his maximum temperature, and blew up like a pressure cooker, also with the sound effects.

“I did not ask my father to name me as such!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, all while cursing his father for naming him like that.

“Relax buddy, I was just joking. Remember that quest you gave me?” Naruto became serious.

“Don’t you mean mission?” Yamato tried to correct him.

“Whatever. They amount to same thing anyway.” Naruto dismissed the issue.

“Oh? You found the traitors then?” not at all concern by the terms used by the demon, Raikage asked the question which was more important for him.

“Yes.” Naruto confirmed, tossing him a diary.

Raikage opened the diary, to see the list of names, along with their profession, position, and various comments of Naruto.

“Damn it! All these people are at the very high position.” He cursed quietly.

“True.”

“But just because they hold such places does not mean I can let them go.” He continued to mutter to himself.

“Also, true.” Naruto kept hearing him, and commenting.

“God damn it. Fine! I order you to kill them, I’ll think of something in the meanwhile.” Raikage really didn’t want to deal with this now, but really doesn’t have much of a choice.

“Fine. You do that, say, are Yugito and B in the village?” Naruto asked, gaining an evil glint in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Excellent!” saying that, Naruto teleported in flames.

* * *

(In the Hidden leaf village, daytime.)

All three Sannin were present in the Hokage’s office, since they were the strongest Shinobi in the village currently, the responsibility of keeping it running was put on their shoulder, not that they asked for the responsibility willingly.

Still, they have that responsibility, so they were managing the village as best they can, especially when they were surrounded by enemies.

All three of them have just finished some discussion that Orochimaru decided to spoke out loud about the problem he was thinking.

“Tsunade, do you know how exactly Uzomaki knew that Akatsuki were present in the Land of fire?”

She took a moment to think about it.

“It is not clear. Other than some informants, I can’t think of any other way.”

“But who could have told him?” Jiraiya spoke out loud, as well as thinking the answer in his mind.

“There were some monks from the Fire temple here to inform me that all the people present in the temple at that time were slaughtered. And they saw two people leaving who were wearing black cloaks with red clouds.” Tsunade explained to both of them.

“Trademark of Akatsuki.” Jiraiya concluded.

“From that, the monks and I arrived on same conclusion that the people who murdered the monks of the Fire temple were Akatsuki.” She finished explaining.

“Then you send us to search and kill them.” Orochimaru finished.

“Yes. And I sent specifically you two, because you two are the only one who can stand a chance against them.”

“But before we could even manage to find those members, Asuma’s team found them first.” Jiraiya continued her train of thought.

“That is another thing. Asuma knew that we have come along specifically for engaging with Akatsuki members. So why didn’t he call us for help? The only time he called us when Uzomaki arrived.” Orochimaru asked.

“Maybe he was confident that he and his team can take Akatsuki, but he was not willing to take chances with Naruto’s arrival?” Jiraiya puts one of the possibilities.

“Maybe. Still, it was not a great decision.” Orochimaru was not happy with the bearded Jonin.

“Ahem. I think we should focus more on how exactly Uzomaki got the information about Akatsuki, rather than what decisions a dead Jonin took.” Tsunade decided to get the discussion back on track.

“Tsunade,” Jiraiya said, not willing to let go of the argument.

“Not the time, Jiraiya!” she swiftly told him.

“I don’t think we should focus on how Uzomaki got the information about Akatsuki, instead, we should focus on how he gets the information in general.” Orochimaru suggested.

“A scary thought, but what if he has some people among our forces?” Jiraiya said.

Three seconds of silence.

“Sigh, time to make a spy sweep then.” Tsunade said, not happy.

“Not just that, are there any who can be spies in his year group?” Orochimaru asked sharply.

“None in particular stand out; he was not particularly close to any of them.” Tsunade couldn’t think of anyone who fits the description.

“What about the people who run that ramen stand?” Orochimaru continued to ask.

“I hardly see how they can be useful.” Tsunade dismissed the thought.

“True.” Jiraiya agreed.

“I guess we have to do some research about it,” when he saw Jiraiya’s grin, he immediately said, “Not that research you fool! I meant check out some places and people.”

“I think I should investigate the public front, since I am quite use to it. You guys can take care of other part.” The toad sage suggested.

“Agreed.” Both of them stated.

* * *

(In a council meeting, village Hidden in the Clouds.)

“Lord Raikage, why have you summoned us?” a man stated, barely hiding the disdain of the Shinobi who have come along with the kage.

“Yes, if the matter is urgent, then wouldn’t it be important if all the members of the counsel are present?” another council member stated, noticing several members were absent.

“In any other situation, you would be correct. But, recently, one of my Shinobi was assigned a mission, a mission about which I was not aware, this keeping in mind that no one have any right to give missions without my approval, also due to the importance of the said Shinobi, I prohibited the said Shinobi from leaving from this village. Yet, they have that mission; as a result they were almost killed!” Raikage slammed his hand at the end of his speech.

“Lord Raikage, I really don’t understand what this have to do with any of us,” another council member stated nervously.

After hearing that, Raikage started to sport a positively gleeful grin.

“But you see,” he said, much calmer now, “It has everything to do with you.”

“What?” every council member present there stated.

Raikage tossed them the copies of list of names which Naruto gave him before this meeting.

“This,” some of them said in shock, most of them were too shocked to form any words.

“I tasked one of my people to find out who exactly decided to breach my authority. And these are the names of people who are guilty.” The grin was looking psychotic now.

In panic, some members of counsels ripped the list in to pieces.

“There! You have nothing to prove anymore!”

Raikage shook his head.

“Do you honestly think that those were the only copies? I have the original, also several copies hidden as well.”

“W-we would like to know who this Shinobi was.” More experienced members of council asked.

“I was waiting when you will ask that.” Raikage motioned for the door to be opened.

The door opened, and walked in, “Yo! How is it going buddy?” Naruto spoke to Raikage as if they were old friends.

All the council members have their eyes widen, because they not only know who exactly that person is, but the manner he addressed the Raikage.

“Fine. What now?” he said stiffly.

It was one thing to be treated in such a way in his office, it was different here. Couldn’t the damn boy understand?

“Hm, looks pretty strait forward to me, the punishment of treason is death.” Naruto said, as if talking about the weather of yesterday.

“Not that. How exactly are you going to kill them?” the words of the Raikage were enough for them to realize that their fate has been decided.

Before Naruto could say anything, one of the nobles has enough.

“With all due respect lord Raikage,” which he really doesn’t have, “You really don’t have any right to kill us, not on account of someone like him?” He looked towards the demon, as if he really doesn’t belong the same planet as himself.

“Say one more word, and before killing you I will pull your Tung out of your mouth.” Naruto retorted. He had enough of these people in the Leaf; he won’t tolerate them here as well.

“Nicely said.” Raikage complemented.

“Thanks.” Naruto nodded.

“Besides, most of you people are not even the part of the military of this village. The only reason why you were holding on to your positions was because of your fathers and grandfathers.” Raikage really didn’t give a damn about these politicians.

“Oy! Yugito, Bea, come in.” Naruto didn’t give any chances for anyone to speak.

“Very nice.” Raikage understood how Naruto is going to kill them.

“Yeah, have fun.” He said.

Unusually, Bea didn’t say anything in his usual rapping style. Naruto promptly left through the door, and Raikage teleported in the lightning.

As Naruto started to walk outside, the screams started.

* * *

(In the office of Raikage.)

“What am I going to do now?” Raikage asked to himself.

He was not surprised by the brutality of his brother.

“You can always use your public department for the applications of the empty positions.” The demon suggested.

“It would take too long to go through them.” he shot down the idea.

Besides, more paperwork.

“Who told you that you have to do all the things? Organize some more team of people who are completely loyal to you and fairly competent in their field. They will be able to do that for you.” Naruto suggested again.

“Fine. Considering your services Uzomaki, you get to do the remaining paperwork of the day.” Raikage stated gleefully.

‘That would teach you to talk to me disrespectfully in the public!’ he thought in his head, and left for the night of amusement.

“What?” Naruto was too shocked to stop him.

For the second time of the day, Raikage teleported in the lightning.

“Damn it!” and naturally, Naruto failed to stop him.

* * *

(At the hidden Leaf village, night time.)

“Weren’t you about to investigate public front?” Tsunade asked Jiraiya.

“Well, you know that public sleeps in the night time, right?” he retorted sarcastically.

“Yeah, whatever. Where exactly are we going?” this time, she asked Orochimaru.

“We are going to find whether someone is, or was using one of my old places, and if yes, whether they left anything for us there or not.” He explained.

“Sounds reasonable to me.” Jiraiya couldn’t help himself.

“What, you thought I would be raving mad?” Orochimaru asked, not believing his old teammate would have such a low opinion of him.

“Well, in the past,” Jiraiya began.

“Never happened.” Orochimaru stopped him, hissing warningly.

They entered his old laboratory.

Well, one of many old laboratories.

“Someone was here.” Orochimaru stated.

“How can you tell?” Tsunade asked.

“Look how the clean the place is?” Jiraiya remarked.

Really, for a supposed closed secret lab which is no longer in use, the place was too clean.

“Now that you said that, no one should have come here after I left.” Orochimaru said, not liking someone else taking his secret place.

“Except for the snooping ANBU.” Jiraiya again couldn’t help himself.

“Still, I think after searching the place, they would have left it as it was.” Tsunade said.

“Look at the tube.” Orochimaru said, while observing a lab tube.

“Fresh water.” Tsunade remarked.

“Damn it.” they got the proof for which they were looking for.

* * *

(In the hidden Cloud, in the building of the Raikage’s office, night time.)

“Naruto, find the traitors. Naruto, tell me how am I going to fill their empty positions. Naruto, execute the traitors. Naruto, do the paperwork.” Naruto was ranting to himself.

“Continue to do that, and I might shock you.” Yamato said, annoyed.

“You can do that?” Naruto asked in surprise.

He was totally not thinking of application of such a sword with a childlike glee. Nope. Totally not.

“I am about to find out!” the sword said sarcastically.

At that moment, a female voice came from the door.

“Lord Raikage? I have completed the mission you have assigned me,” the female opens the door.

“Lord Raikage?” seeing that her boss was not answering, she called again.

Naruto, luckily, (or unluckily earlier,) was surrounded with so many papers that she didn’t even saw him.

Which was odd to her, considering that Raikage always towers over the pile?

Naruto decided to tell her that her boss wasn’t here at the moment.

“Unfortunately, Jonin,” he said, trying to be scary, “Raikage has left the building.”

“What? Naruto, is that you?” unfortunately, the female Jonin recognized him quickly.

“Yeah it is me. Just what kind of mission that nut assigned you, Samui?” he asked.

“Do not disrespect— “she tried to say, but was cut off in the middle.

“Yeah, yeah, right now, I really am pissed off at him.”

“Where is he anyway?” she decided to ask again.

“Probably with Mabui.” Naruto answered with some amusement.

He was sure soon there will be some rumors about the great and powerful Raikage.

“What?” Samui asked again, shocked with his blunt answer.

“You know the boss and secretary relationship? It is classic.” He said again, with a same tone.

“Why are you telling me all this? “She really didn’t need that information.

“Because I—you know what? Fuck that. I am done working for the day. Say, would you want to come with me?” he asked her strait forwardly.

“Only if you buy a nice dinner for me.” Naruto was quite lucky at that moment that Samui wanted to unwind after her mission.

“Deal.” With that, Naruto left the mountain of paperwork, and teleported with the girl.

* * *

(Next morning.)

“Naruto, wake up, its afternoon.” Samui said, what felt like thousandth time to her at that morning.

“Mmm, go away.” The reply was always same.

“Naruto, wake up.” Raikage ordered.

“Screw you.” Even if he was asleep, he was still holding on to the grudge from the last night.

“Naruto! Yo!” B said cheerfully.

Naruto was suddenly wide awake.

“Bea? What the hell are you doing in my house?”

A part from the burned apartment in the Leaf, this was another property Naruto own that anyone was actually aware of.

“Well, I heard that we were going to attack the Akatsuki base, so,” he trailed off.

“So, you thought that you should come to me.” Naruto finished.

“Yeah! But my brother doesn’t want me to go just like that. Fool, you fool!” apparently, B forgot that said brother was in the room with him.

“How dare you call your brother fool, iron claw!”

“Yikes!” B ran like his life depended on it.

“It’s too early in the morning,” Naruto muttered, for which he received a look from Samui.

“Really? Look outside!” the girl said with some annoyance.

After the chaos was over, mainly because a left for his office, and Bea ran away, Naruto decided to wake up.

* * *

(Later, in the Raikage’s office.)

“So, finally slept enough?” the man asked in some amusement.

“Screw you. Why the hell were you there anyway?” for the second time at that day, Naruto cursed him.

“Because you left the paperwork of the previous day.” He answered him flatly.

“No! I worked until the night time. There is no way it could have grown in just six hours or so.” Naruto answered, horrified.

“Welcome to hell, Uzomaki.”

“Whatever.”

“Now, on to more serious topics. Are you planning to assault the Akatsuki?” Raikage asked.

“Correct.”

“Well, don’t tell me you are planning to do that alone,” Raikage said, while giving him a look.

“What, do you think I am stupid?” Naruto asked in return.

“You really want me to answer that?” Raikage hoped secretly that he really wants him to do so.

“Yeah, yeah. But to be honest, I am confident that I can take them on, provided no complications arise.”

“And by complications you mean…” he questioned.

“Something I really don’t know about.”

“So, you are not planning to go there alone. Who would you take then? I can’t really send my ninjas with you, not if you want our plans to be executed properly.”

“You are right.”

“And what about Yugito? She will insist on going with you.”

Naruto’s expressions immediately get harden. “No.”

“Why?” Raikage really didn’t understood why he was not willing to take the second container.

“Give her reason, any reason, to keep her here.” He said.

“Yeah right. You expect a fully healed Shinobi to stay out of the operation which they want to be the part of?” Raikage said, while giving him another look.

“You’re the Raikage. I am sure you will think of something.”

“But you still have some people in mind, despite my warning that I can’t send any of my Shinobi with you.” A sighed, resigned to the possibility.

“B for one.” Naruto answered immediately.

“It would be good if you give me the explanation for why you are willing to endanger my brother, but not the other container we have.” At that moment, the temperature of that office went down sharply.

That was enough for Naruto to realize that A was not happy with his decision to take B with him.

“And what can I do? She has already proven that we can’t trust her in these situations. Not to mention, in the matters of training, power, and experience, B surpasses her.”

“So, just because she was captured once, you are unwilling to take her with you?”

“No. it is her general attitude. Look, when I tell B to get out of somewhere fast, he will listen to me. Yes, he will complain a lot in the process, but he will listen. But Yugito? She wouldn’t do anything like that.” Naruto explained.

Raikage sighed. “Fine. Good luck for trying to explain all that to her.”

“Damn it.” the demon cursed.

“So, since you have already decided to take some Shinobi from here, which one do you want?” might as well go down all the way.

“Tell me, would they be able to perform with their headbands hidden?” Naruto questioned, more than familiar with the attachment of Shinobi with their headbands.

“What kind of question is this? Of course, they will perform. Just because the headband is the prized position for a Shinobi, does not mean that they can’t go without them.” Raikage scoffed at such a question.

“Very good then. Now, I need people who can provide medical assistance, and combat group which can perform the extraction from the battle field.” Naruto said, pleased.

“Why?”

“Because while I will take the attention of the most of Akatsuki, including their leader, I will need someone like B who also can manage a battle or two.” Naruto explained his plan further.

“Very well. I think C will do as a medic, and Darui and the team trained by B for the combat group.” It was example of his familiarity with his shinobi that it didn’t took much thought for Raikage to think about the team.

“Good. Now, before the cat girl finds me, I need to hide somewhere until the attack is ready.” Naruto said, trying not to show any emotion in his face.

After that, Naruto disappeared.


	14. Chapter 15

Chapter 14.  
Assault at the Akatsuki base.

Alternative title: once more, normal people payed the price for the battles of monsters.

(At the Hidden cloud, on village gate.)

“So, let’s go over the plan once more.” Naruto was saying to the Jonin and Chunin gathered around him.

Karui groaned. “Didn’t we go over this several times already?”

“Well, let me be clear to you. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have brought any of you in the first place.”

“What?” several Shinobi said out of surprise.

“But since you are coming, then it is my responsibility to keep you alive.” Naruto works best alone; the demon was really not looking forward to this operation.

“Don’t you mean that it is our responsibility to get you out, alive?” Darui asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“Ha! Nice one. I am happy to know that beneath that cold exterior, there is a sense of humor, waiting to be unleashed.” The demon replied, equally sarcastic.

“If it was up to me, I would only bring Jonin.” He finished, causing rest of the ninjas to stare at him.

“Harsh, man. Let’s here out what our brother has planned already.” B said in the silence.

“Fine, just so we can leave already.” Karui said, just as impatient as ever.

“So, here’s what we will do. B and I are going to sneak in to the Land of Rain, where we will confront the Akatsuki members. If any one of us ended up in a situation where we can’t go on anymore, there will be a large red glowing signal. Upon which the combat squad will extract us, and C is there to heal anyone who gets injured. Still you should change your name, man.” Naruto explained,

“No thanks.” The medic refused.

“Whatever.” If people want to have name resembling programming languages, of which not even a concept exist in this part of the world, it wasn’t his business.

“You call this a plan?” Samui couldn’t restrain herself.

“As much as I hate to say, there are very few Ninjas who can stand against Akatsuki members. We need overwhelming firepower to deal with them.” Naruto said.

“And both of us got that in spades.” B affirmed.

“Whatever, if you want to die so badly.” Karui said, with quite an uncaring tone.

“Hmhmhm. You don’t even know how many times I have died, girl.” Naruto chuckled in amusement.

After the awkward silence, Naruto spoke again.

“B, I have something for you in case you somehow ended up against Kisame.”

“Don’t worry brother! I will skin that shark alive!” the Jinchuriki was confident.

“Yeah, to counter his sword, I suggest you take this.” Naruto continued, while bringing out the sealing tag.

“What is in that seal?” B asked curiously.

“Pure demonic energy. Let Kisame’s sword absorb that, and watch the results. My only regret at that point would be I wouldn’t be there to see that happen. I will give you this sealing tag just before we enter the enemy stronghold.” Really! The sacrifices he has to make.

“Ha! Don’t worry. I was completely sure of my victory, but now, I am even more ready to beat him. Hahaha!”

“Well then? Let us go.” Naruto prepared to teleport them.

“Not so fast!” someone said, and appeared just in front of the group.

Naruto turned to B, and said, “I thought your brother was making sure that she was in hospital again!”

“Well I guess, she escaped, didn’t she?” B said, though he wasn’t too terribly concerned by the development.

“Not the time, B.” Naruto cursed.

“Pay attention to me!” the female said, and throws a fireball which just went over his head.

“Wow, man. You work fast, one rescue, and she is already throwing fireballs at you.” For the first time, Yamato chimed.

“Shut up Yamato.”

“Tell me something. Why didn’t you choose me to go with you for this mission?” Yugito asked, with quite a threat in her voice.

“And what do you want me to say, Yugito? You very well know that this is not a mission assigned by your village.” Naruto said flatly.

“Still—“the girl tried to continue, but Naruto decided that he was having none of it.

“Not done yet!” seeing that she was listening, Naruto continued. “Tell me, what exactly did you do when you realized that you have just walked in to a trap? Did you think that you can take care of the problem by yourself?” a nod was the answer.

“If you failed to do that, would you think that you can use Matatabi’s power?” another nod.

“Didn’t it occur to you that you should run from the people who actually managed to capture a Kage alive from the middle of his own village?” the demon questioned relentlessly.

She didn’t have an answer for that.

“Look behind me. These are the people who know that this is not an official mission; they can’t even ware their headbands. Also, there is always a possibility that they can get captured. But even knowing all this, they are with me. In fact, I requested their services from Raikage. Because they won’t be getting over confident, and endangering the comrades they have. You, on the other hand, will do exactly that.”

She stood there like a statue, and then disappeared in flames, leaving silence in her wake.

“You are going to get such a lashing after you get back,” Yamato said, very amused.

“Shut up, Yamato.” His wielder by contrast, was not so amused.

* * *

(At the border of the Land of rains.)

“Rain, so much rain,” Karui commented to herself after seeing the rain from far.

“Yeah, try not to enter in the rainy area until someone calls for your help.” The demon advised.

“Why?” the girl asked.

“Apparently, someone thought it was a good idea to use rain as a security sensor.” The demon said, personally thinking it was a great idea, hack the natural weather for security purposes.

“Hm. But I doubt that they can pinpoint the exact nature of anyone who gets caught in their scan.” Darui deduced.

“Correct. But the problem is, said person would definitely have ways to confirm the identity of the person who was found through their scan.” C also thought it a great idea.

“Oh quit trying to be so mysterious. We all know the person is the leader of Akatsuki, and I know for a fact that he is male.” The demon crashed their party.

C and Darui gave him annoyed looks.

“What.” He asked in confusion.

“Nothing.” C and Darui said in unison.

“Oh yeah, B, before I forgot, here’s your sealing tag.” The demon handed him the said tag.

“Great!”

“I forgot to ask earlier, but why exactly would he need something like that?” Darui did not see the purpose of feeding more energy to your enemy, even if it is demon energy.

“As I said earlier, he will need it against Kisame.”

“Again, why?” C asked, since it wasn’t a full-fledged explanation.

“Sigh. Demon lesson, chapter 2. There is no human alive who can absorb demon energy, and use it. It is simply too potent. Same is true for human made weapons. You are seeing where I am going with this, right?” the demon said, annoyed.

“I see it alright.” B agreed.

“Thus, when he starts to suck you dry,” Naruto smirked at the look B gave him, “Slap that tag to that greedy sword, and watch the results. My only regret at that point would be I wouldn’t be there to see that.”

“Though I am sure,

I won’t need it,

Still for the gift,

Lord Eight thanks you!”

“Great then. Let’s lay waste to the organization which has been cause for more than one headache for me.”

With that, they both entered in to the Land of Rain.

* * *

(Inside of the God’s tower.)

Pain was busy thinking how exactly he was supposed to take that thrice damn demon container.

Really, he thought that no matter how much powerful the boy gets, he would be able to defeat him. Not to mention, he also have two people who have the eyes which are the weakness to all tailed beasts.

Everything was just working according to plan, and then suddenly he got bad news from Zetsu, stating that boy has somehow absorbed the nine tailed fox.

Of course, both Madara and Zetsu scoffed at the news, whatever power they both holds does not mean they think that fox was easy to control, let alone absorb.

But, then sudden increase in the activity of Leaf, and his two members getting killed by the same boy, now things were getting concerning.

It is important to note that Dedara did not know who exactly killed Sasori, that old woman, or the boy himself.

So, he really has to plan how exactly he is going to capture and extract the power of a person, who supposedly absorbed the strongest tail beast. Not that he would admit to anyone.

His plans were running in to one obstacle after another. No matter how much of a godly image he maintains in front of Madara, he really needed to come up with something to capture the boy.

He can’t allow any hint of weakness to appear, otherwise that Uchiha (Who by every logical factor should be dead and become dost at this point, yet was still alive,) Would try to take over the organization, just like he tried in past many times.

Not for the first time, he lamented what exactly his organization has become.

And he had a great plan too! First, collect enough power to open the passage to the demon world, subjugate them, after all, what is a demon to a god?

After that, by using their power, subdue the human population who just wouldn’t stop fighting.

Then, that would bring unprecedented era of peace.

‘What would Hidan say?’ he thought to himself.

“Just be quiet, and get sacrificed to the lord Jashin!” the image of Hidan stated with finality.

But in this case, the sacrifice wouldn’t be for some selfish god.

He shook his head. This was not the time to think about that violent lunatic.

He was about to continue his brooding, but suddenly his head went up towards the sky. He was sensing something which he didn’t want to know at this moment.

“Konan,” he said softly.

The angel appeared on god’s side in a silent flutter of papers.

“There are intruders in our village. Find and eliminate them.” was his swift and simple order.

The angel disappeared just as silently as she appeared.

* * *

(With Naruto and B.)

“Man, this rain is so uncool, and the landscape is not impressive either.” So far, B was not impressed with the Land of Rain.

He will never hold a concert here!

“Oh that? Apparently, it was used to be a rain forest long time ago.” The demon replied.

“Really? There was a forest here?” that was quite surprising for B, because currently he was only seeing a wasteland, with flooding waters.

“Yes. But due to the battles which took place here time and time again, the forest was completely destroyed.” The demon said, while observing the surrounding area.

“What a sad place,” Yamato said heavily.

“Oh, that is nothing.” Naruto said amusement clear in his voice. “It would have recovered by itself, but the moron who thought it was a good idea to keep the village covered in constant rain, while not letting receive any sunlight destroyed any hope of recovery of that forest.”

“Talk about being enemy of your own land.” Yamato said.

B started to compose several raps about the topic.

“Ah, the nine tails and eight tails Jinchuriki at same place, looks like this is my lucky day.” A voice stated.

“Who said that, yo?” B asked in his usual fashion.

Naruto palmed his face.

“He stole my thunder,” he sulked.

“A don’t worry, boy, lord eight is here!” B was completely unconcerned about his sulking comrade.

In that exact moment, Zetsu came in front of them.

“Fine. You can take care of him then.” The demon said, in a voice which was totally not sulking.

“What? This plant is not worthy of lord eight!” B was offended that he has to take care of such a weakling.

“Whatever. You stole my thunder; you get to keep it.” Naruto didn’t care.

“Fine, I’ll do it, just because lord Eight is so nice!” B was sure that Naruto would recognize his niceness in the near future.

“As if. You won’t be able to defeat me. Instead, you simply will become another stepping stone for Akatsuki’s plan.” Zetsu stated, very confident.

“We’ll see about that.” B replied, and with a flourish, brings out two out of his seven swords.

“Only two?” Naruto asked curiously.

“This plant is not worthy for the might of the lord Eight, yo!” B said, while looking at Zetsu with disdain.

“Whatever. Don’t come to me, if you get kicked around by a plant.” Though the demon knew that B was infinitely stronger than... whatever that plant is called.

“With what? Roots?” Yamato wondered.

“Whatever the thing the plant uses for kicking people.” Though he suddenly has an image of an old man kicking people, while calling himself the root of Leaf.

Zetsu was many things, a flytrap, an extremely good spy, better than Jiraiya or Kabuto, in his opinion. A 6000 years old plant, who wanted to bring back a princess, but a person who can take so much disrespect at once?

He was not one of them.

“Lord Eight will not need any assistance, yo!” B assured Naruto, because in his mind the demon was quite concerned about him. 

“This is getting repetitive and dull. Go and kill him quickly.” Naruto said.

“I see that rumors of your arrogance were very true.” Zetsu stated with a sneer.

Though it should be researched how exactly a plant face manages to sneer.

“It is not arrogance if it is true, now is it? You are nothing against B, what makes you think you would even scratch me?” Naruto didn’t even feel anything with that sneer directed at him.

“Hmhmhmhm. I know for a fact that the eight tails is definitely stronger than you. I don’t know why he works with the likes of you.”

“Oy! Don’t disrespect the friend!” B couldn’t take this insult.

“Friend? He is anything but your friend. After all, he would be the one who will end up killing you.” The plant stated confidently.

Now, if he could only sow more discourse among both of them…

“Be that maybe, it would be an honor to die by his hand.” B stated, solemnly.

At that moment, a tear dropped from Naruto’s left eye.

Exaggerated? Maybe. But it was gratifying for someone like Naruto, that a person trusts him so much.

Luckily, the rain didn’t let anyone see that tear.

“B? Finish him.” Naruto stated imperiously.

“Gladly, yo!” with his infuriating war cry, he started to approach the plant man.

Realizing that the time for the words is over, Zetsu decided to not give his opponent any chances.

The ground beneath Killer B shifted, and thick roots started to come out of the ground to bind him, and stop him from advancing.

Of course, considering that B was holding two of his seven swords, it was not a surprise he started to cut them.

“I think someone is having a deforestation nightmare.” Naruto deadpanned.

“And I am having plant nightmares.” A great sword he maybe, but Yamato was not built to cut trees.

“Yeah, no kidding, that thing is ugly.” The demon agreed.

Zetsu was annoyed that his strategy to immobilizing his opponent did not work. So, he decided to put a trap.

As soon as the Jinchuriki stepped in to the small roots which are hidden between the larger ones, his chakra would be absorbed.

He forgot to take into account that for those roots to be effective, B has to be using his tail beast’s chakra.

According to Zetsu’s plan, B did step on the roots. But as soon as he felt them move, he jumped and disappeared from the line of sight of Zetsu.

“Where did he go?” the white half asked in confusion. Until now, it was ruthlessly suppressed by the black side.

“I don’t know.” His black side spoke, remaining in control until now.

Maybe he felt that fighting two powerhouses alone was not a good idea?

“My brother maybe,  
Is the master of the speed,  
But lord eight,  
Is no slouch,  
In the game of speed!”

“Oh, fuck.” Zetsu spoke, which were the final words on this planet for him, and got promptly sliced in to many pieces.

“Thus, ends the existence of a plant man, which is a horrible name for a super hero.” Naruto commented.

“Well, what kind of hero would name himself like that?” Yamato asked.

“An eldritch kind. I know people think that plants and trees are these defenseless things, but I have suffered by their hands...... branches, a lot to know otherwise.” Naruto shivered.

“No arguments from me.” In his two thousand years of causing havoc by various wielders, Yamato also suffered the same thing.

“So, how was the,  
Performance of the lord eight?” B asked, moving to the rhythm which only he knew.

“Damn. Is he always like that?” despite several days of planning, Yamato still did not have much exposure of other people in general.

“No. only when he is excited.”

Then, Yamato heard something, so he decided to inform his wielder about it.

“Hay Naruto, did you hear that?”

“What, how can you hear in the first place?” the demon checked, there weren’t any ears!

“How unfair. You should know by this point that I am a spirit. Besides, you mortal creatures aren’t the only ones with awesome things like hearing. Discrimination!” the sword sniffed.

“Okay, okay. Sorry. But, what did you hear?” The demon apologized.

“Sounds like water.” The sword informed.

Naruto looked around.

“Well, we are standing in rain,” the demon was beginning to think that the constant raining sound was affecting his sword in a bad way.

“Not that! It is sounding like a waterfall or something like that.” The sword clarified.

Naruto was immediately on his guard.

After all, there was such a technique called waterfall on his world.

Then he saw an absolutely monstrous wall of water approaching both himself and still celebrating and franticly writing Killer B.

“B! Watch out!” Naruto warned.

“What?” B asked in surprise.

Naruto immediately teleported next to the lord eight, and decided to defend both of them.

“B, don’t go outside of the area, understand?” Naruto instructed.

“Fine.” B agreed quickly; he also have seen the massive wall of water heading their way.

“Protect!”

Naruto’s eyes started to glow red, and a blue outline surrounded him and B. When the wave of water collided with them, the water was deflected to their left and right.

When the water level started to rise, both of them focused, and remained standing at the erratic surface of the water. When it was clear that no more waves are coming up, Naruto let go of the shielding move.

When all the waves were settled, a large man with a sword and blue skin can be seen standing just opposed to the demon lord and the eight tails container.

“Well, well. I never understood why you didn’t work for sand,” Naruto couldn’t help but say.

“What?” the large man asked in confusion.

“I mean just look at the amount of water you have produced now? You would have made a killer fortune for working them.” The demon continued.

“You are insane if you think I would work for someone like them.” the man disagreed.

“And what is wrong with ‘them,’ as you have put it?” the demon asked.

“I have worked for one Ninja village already, and it is more than enough to last me a lifetime.”

“Yet, you are not against to working in a terrorist organization.” Personally, Naruto didn’t care, but it was fun to rile the enemies.

“What would you know, Uzomaki.” Kisame asked in anger.

“Nothing. And I clearly don’t care either.” The demon gave a flippant response.

“Ignoring me is not a polite,  
Thing to do, yo!” B said, still continuing to move in the unknown rhythm even on the surface of water.

“I think he is still running high on his previous victory.” Yamato said.

“HUMPH! Of course, he is, do you know whose subordinate he is?” the demon asked.

After all, he had himself recruited such a ham by his talent alone!

“Lord eight,  
Ain’t anyone’s subordinate, yo!” the Jinchuriki said defiantly.

“Hmhmhm. Looks like dissention in your ranks, Uzomaki.” The shark man was very amused.

“Nah, let him have his fun. You on the other hand, are going to be cut down in to so many pieces,—“

“Yo!” B interrupted Naruto’s threat.

“What.” Naruto asked in an Icey voice.

“I wasn’t satisfied by the last bout,  
It left me with a bad case of blue balls,  
Bluer than the shark man over there!” Kisame twitched.

“Too much information.” Yamato said.

“Fine, feel free to do so.” Naruto agreed. After all, he had given that seal to B just for this purpose.

B started to bring out rest of his five swords.

“But remember the precaution.” Naruto reminded.

“Yes, yes.” B said quickly.

Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, Naruto jumped aside, leaving B to face the shark ninja alone.

Though he has no intentions of just sitting and watching. If he felt that B is in danger anytime, he will be prepared to interfere.

Much to Kisame’s anger, B was still righting high on the victory he had over the zetsu. Thus, dismissing him completely, he still was celebrating loudly.

Too bad that he could not take his book of raps out for writing; the book is not protected by the water proofing seals.

But, Kisame was not willing to let the Jinchuriki celebrate more, and running through the hand signs at a furious speed, launched a water shark at the tall man.

He knew that B would never get hit by something so simple, but he had to get his attention. And it worked as intended.

“Attacking someone like this ain’t cool you know!” how could someone be so bad? Interrupting the moment of his inspiration.

Kisame snarled in anger.

The Jinchuriki, whom he couldn’t even call a brat considering he was almost same age as himself, was still not taking the battle seriously.

“Fine then. Perhaps this will be much cooler?” Kisame said.

Naruto winced.

“Good thing that those brothers are not here.” Naruto muttered to himself.

“Who?” Yamato asked in confusion.

“You really don’t want to know.” The things he had read up on them... it was good they weren’t present in his time.

Back in the fight, Kisame decided to forgo the water attacks; he decided to attack with his sword instead.

A chakra tentacle came out of B’s body, and clashed with Samehata. Some of the bandages on the sword fell with the clash, and the tentacle was absorbed by the sword, increasing the size of the sword in the process.

“What?” B was surprised.

He knew that the sword could absorb Chakra, but this was unexpected.

“Ha! Attack as hard as you want. In the end, you will make me stronger.” Kisame was very confident.

“B, I warned you, didn’t I?” Naruto said with a sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, still not a threat.” But B was still convinced that he could beat the shark ninja by himself.

“Whatever.” Naruto resigned himself to saving the Jinchuriki from the beating.

“One would think you would care for the person more, who is fighting from your side.” Yamato asked.

“When the said person disregards my warnings, they deserve everything coming to them.” especially when he was there to save them from the death.

While Naruto was busy talking to his sword, Kisame rushed at B, determined to draw the demon container in a close combat, and drain more of his energy.

But B was fast enough to block Samehata with one of his own swords in his right hand. But the raw power in Kisame’s swing was enough to move his arm a little.

Kisame continued to push the sword, confident that his power would be enough for him to overpower the Jinchuriki.

B, meanwhile was busy thinking his next step. It has been years that he has involved himself in a fight like this, since his brother became Raikage, he was never sent on a mission.

Thus, it has been years since he got to do what he is about to do.

A black inky cloud appeared out of Jinchuriki’s mouth, splashing on Kisame’s face directly, causing him to become blind, and panicking him badly, that he immediately back flipped to get some more space.

Fortunately for the shark man, the effects of the ink weren’t permanent.

“Arg!” he growled. “I had enough of you for a lifetime!”

Instead of rushing again like previous times, Kisame decided to create some clones, hoping to take advantage of the numbers against the Jinchuriki. Besides, he wouldn’t be able to hold off multiple opponents, and defend himself.

With that thought, Kisame sent his clones after B, while he himself waited for a moment of weakness to appear.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

“So, there can be clones created from water?” Yamato was asking.

“Yes. But you see, these clones only have one/tenth of the original’s power.”

“Quite weak, but good for at least as a distraction?” Yamato asked again, already seeing the application of such a technique.

“Exactly. But when I was pretending to be a Shinobi—“ Naruto was interrupted in the middle.

Yamato chuckled.

“Shut it! As I was saying, when I was pretending to be a Shinobi, I used a much superior version of the clone technique.” Naruto said, very proud of himself.

“One which no doubt used more power than an average Ninja.” Yamato didn’t even hesitate to say that.

“So what?” the demon asked defensively.

* * *

(Back to the watery fight.)

One after another, the watery constructs started to come after the container of the eight tails. Sometimes in pairs, sometimes in large hordes, which completely surrounded him.

B, with his lightning Chakra focused on his swords, always cleared them before the clones could ever pose a danger to him.

But soon enough, there were no more clones.

Now, neither Naruto nor B saw Kisame create more clones, and the real one was not among the clones. Which meant,

“B, watch out!” the demon warned for the second time.

As soon as Naruto’s warning came, a sword comes out of the earth like a dorsal fin, trying to strike at the rapping ninja.

But due to the Naruto’s timely warning, B was able to get away from the danger. Still, he did not get away cleanly.

Samehata was able to shave off more chakra from B, but still, Kisame was not satisfied by that. The strike was supposed to either kill him, or disable him enough that he could take care of Uzomaki and seal the eight tails.

But just because of a warning, this situation started to stretch even longer than it already was, in his opinion.

“You know what? I had enough. I will not restrain myself anymore.” After saying that, he got out of the earth, canceling the technique he was using to stay there.

As soon as he was out of the earth, he started to flip through the hand signs with a blazing speed, ending in Ram.

“Somehow, I know,  
What is coming to be!”

Uncaring for the Jinchuriki’s bad rimes, Kisame spews extremely large amounts of water, more than the time when he did his entrance. Soon, the area which was already watery turned into an impromptu lake.

Before B could do anything in retaliation, Kisame did the hand signs for the water prison technique, and created a large water prison. He then fused with his sword, gaining a shark like body in the process, and disappeared under the water.

Inside B’s mind, Jyuki was giving him one hell of a snarking.

“And why didn’t you attack him? My form would have given you advantage!” B couldn’t wait for it to be over.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

“Hm. This won’t do, not at all. Guess I have to interfere on behalf of my team. Really glad that there is no referee to distract.” Naruto was preparing himself, to interfere on behalf of his team.

Very illegal of course.

“Yeah, can you get on with this already? I wana show that sword which one is superior.” Yamato was very eager.

“Sure. Sure.”

But as soon as the demon moved to interfere in the fight, some paper birds stopped him in the middle.

“What?” he said, ‘don’t tell me that Kisame also have a partner to interfere on his behalf?’ he thought.

Make it a lot of paper birds.

Naruto was thinking that these birds are going to attack him, but instead of doing anything like that, they congealed in to a form of a woman.

“Ha! Just your luck Uzomaki.” It was very amusing for the sword.

“Shut up. It’s not like I try to get in these situations.” Really, a paper woman?

“True.” Yamato agreed.

“With that said, it would be really nice if you stand aside, once I am done with that shark face, we will see what we can do about our differences.” Naruto said, while waggling his eyebrows.

But the woman didn’t even react.

Usually when he does something like that, the opposite party would either flirt back with him, since it is a great way to throw off your enemy.

Or lose their temper, twitch in annoyance, or do any number of things.

But the stoic silence is the very rare thing which could be expected. Still not out of the expectation, just very rare.

“You are not allowed to interfere, Jinchuriki.” The woman said coldly.

“Haaahahahaha! It really has been a while someone called me that. Didn’t you receive the news?” Naruto laughed.

“The news of your change was received, true. But it is believed by the organization that you still contain nine tails.” The woman said flatly.

“Yeah right. Couldn’t except that your plans went to hell just because of me, could you?” Naruto said in a mocking tone.

The woman was silent again.

“Well, as a sign of my honesty,”

There was a snort of laughter from his sword.

“I will tell you in advance that I am going to kill your friend Nagato.” The demon finished grimly.

For the first time in the confrontation, her face showed some surprise.

“Not expecting me to know that name? Well I know all about you, Konan, you and your friends.” Finally, the woman was showing some signs of discomfort.

“But how!” Konan said, losing her composure.

“One name. Jiraiya.” Naruto said.

Her face showed the thunderous level of anger.

“Why so angry? I might have not train under him for last three years, but he has been a teacher to all of us at one point or another. It is really not a good sign when you show that expression just by listening to his name.” really, some people could be so ungrateful.

“He might have been our teacher at one point, but our paths are different.” Konan said, regaining her composure.

“True. Unfortunately, you all are in my way. You, your little organization, your friend Nagato, Jiraiya, so please does me a curtesy, and get out of the way.” Everyone wants something from him. Well, he was not in the mood.

Despite his impressive speech, (at least in Naruto’s mind,) Konan did not show any sign of backing down.

“Combat it is then.” The demon said with a sigh.

“It is the only form of communication people like you can understand.” Konan said in her unflappable voice.

“Oi lady, don’t insult me like that. It is you who refuse to let me help my slave,” Naruto received a look from Konan.

“Associate,” another look.

“Friend. My friend. So, it should be me calling you out for that.”

“Really downward there.” Yamato couldn’t help but chime in.

“Screw it, Yamato.”

“Personally, I would rather screw a busty—“

Before Yamato could finish explaining, Naruto was swarmed with more paper birds, who tried to slash him with their talons. And despite made of paper; they still appeared to be capable of a lot of damage.

“Oof. Ouch! Man, I have never suffered such paper cuts before.” Not even when he made a lot of girls upset, and as a result they sent him enchanted letters.

Getting annoyed, Naruto summoned Yamato from his dimension, and started to slash the paper birds. But when he started to cut them down as they approached him, the birds decided to use hit and run tactics against the demon, never staying long enough for him to slash them.

“You know, all these paper cuts are not worth It.” the demon was saying to his sword.

“What, your sense of dramatics?”

“Be quiet. And observe the power of a true demon!”

After saying that, Naruto made few quick slashes in the air, seemingly not doing anything to the paper birds which were quite a distance apart from him.

But just after few moments, instead of constant rain of water, it was paper raining from the sky.

“Land of soggy paper. How does that sound for a name of a country, Yamato?” Naruto asked in amusement.

“I never got the naming convention of your world, Naruto.” After all, who the hell names a country like that?

“I don’t get that either. I mean seriously. There are countries named “Land of this,” or “Land of that.”” The demon said with an exasperated voice.

“Explains their level in the chain of power.” With names like those? No guesses where exactly they are in the said power chain.

“Yep.”

“By the way, where did that chick go?” Yamato noticed the absence of Konan.

“Maybe I was so awesome, that I mistakenly cut her down with her paper birds? —oh hell!” Naruto have to interrupt his gloating.

Sensing a big use of Chakra near himself, Naruto have to use a lot of his impressive speed to get out of the area,

Boooom!

Which right after his hasty retreat, went up in smoke.

“How the hell the area managed to get caught fire even in this relentless rain?” the sword asked, tone of alarm in his voice.

“Don’t ask me, I was not the one who designed that seal.” Then, he looked up in the sky, right at the hovering Konan.

“Though I would very much like to know that.”

“It is a good thing that she is not a seal master. If she was, we would have been screwed already.” the demon said, at least things wouldn’t get downhill.

“No kidding. I don’t want to get imprisoned for four thousand years again.” Yamato shivered at the thought.

“And I don’t want to get imprisoned at all.” How was he supposed to cause untold amount of havoc if he got sealed?

“Your imprisonment wouldn’t last long. Once we extract nine—“before Konan could finish, the demon interrupted her.

“Oh, you are still on about that? How long would it take you to realize that fox doesn’t exist in this world anymore?” Naruto said, very annoyed.

“Words of someone who doesn’t want to get targeted.” Konan dismissed the argument.

“Yeah right. And I would walk right into the place of an organization which wants me in the first place. What do you take me for?” he might be many things, but a fool he was not.

At least in his opinion.

“Personally, I think her mind has been washed.”

Naruto took a moment to contemplate this.

“Damn!” he realized... that the sword might be correct.

* * *

(With Kisame and B.)

Meanwhile the fight between Kisame and B was getting intense inside of the large water prison.

“Huff… huff… huff… starting to getting tired, starting to lose the vision, I am not used to losing so much of my Chakra at once anymore…” B was saying to Jyuki.

“Finally admitting to being old?” the tail beast quipped.

Immediately B in his mindscape, sprang up and struck a pose, and started to dance and rap at once.

“Lord eight ain’t old,  
Old is gold!” he finished it with a heroic pose.

“It’s so conflicting that I am not even going to bother correcting you.” Jyuki said.

After all, B just said that he is not old, yet in second line, he says that old is gold.

While B and Jyuki were busy discussing (in the middle of a fight, no less!) Kisame was happy that he actually decided to capture the Jinchuriki in a water prison. If he knew that he would be so much weakened in this technique, he would have done that from the very beginning. Surprise attack with one great water colliding wave, and boom! Victory.

Not only Kisame was able to move very fast inside the water prison, but he always knew from the small waves created in the water where exactly his opponent is positioned.

With the Chakra absorbing capabilities of Samehata, and his constant hit and run attacks, he was wearing out the Jinchuriki fast.

Though the Jyuki suggested B to transform fully, B declined because then Kisame would be able to absorb chakra even faster.

It all lead into the current situation.

Then, Kisame sensed more vibrations from the explosion nearby.

‘Looks like Konan is losing her patience.’ He smirked in the murky waters of the water prison. ‘Once she is done with that menace, it would be much easier to move forward in the plans of Akatsuki.’

While Kisame was busy reveling in his dominant position, B and Jyuki were having a tactical discussion.

Well, more along the lines of B freaking out.

“How the hell I let him capture me in this prison? When big bro would find out, he is going to be so smug about not letting me go outside of the village for ages…” it continues like that for a while.

But then, Jyuki, being a good friend he was, and the person who was losing their patience, snapped.

“Oh, for the devil’s sake, use the seal Naruto gave you already!” emphasizing the point with a bang on the cage in which he was kept.

That was enough for B to snap out of his muttering, as well as get a miner headache in the process.

“Stop giving me and headache,  
Or I’ll snap your neck!”

“I would like you to try.” Jyuki rumbled, not in mood for more of B’s antics.

Sometimes, he really has to agree with B’s hothead of an older brother that the man is really not fit to go outside of the village.

Kisame came and siphoned more Chakra of B, as well as done more damage.

During such an attack, B grabbed Samehata, and tried to pull the fused sword from its wielder.

“Fool! The sword would only except the person whose Chakra is very rich in quality. Furthermore, it’s fused with me. You really think you would be able to take it away just like that?” Kisame couldn’t believe the gall of some people.

B didn’t reply, and try to pull harder at the sword. But the Samehata grew some spikes at the area which was heled by B, and injured his hand. With a yelp of pain, B was forced to let go of the sword.

Kisame was furious. Who does this demon container think he is? He is just a slave to his village. How dare he try to grab his sword?

Matters like these cannot be forgiven!

But before Kisame could retaliate, Samehata started to squirm.

“What is it?” Kisame asked.

The only answer was more uncomfortable squirming.

“What did you do to my sword?” Kisame yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Nothing but a small gift by a friend.” B said, for once completely serious.

Unknown to Kisame, when B grabbed Samehata, the seal which was given to him by Naruto was sticking on his palm.

When he grabbed the sword, the seal was stuck on Samehata. But due to his Chakra, the sword didn’t notice anything, and absorbed all the Yoki inside of the seal.

The energy was not much, but the demonic energy is very different to Chakra. One was like the water, and other was like lava.

It was almost like that the Samehata drank a glass full of lava.

At this point, the sword was completely out of Kisame’s control, it was twitching and convulsing as if in a lot of pain.

But Kisame himself was not affected, since as soon as Samehata started to act strange, he defused himself from it.

The sword was screeching very loudly. While Kisame managed to detach himself on time making sure that he himself did not get affected by whatever the Jinchuriki did, he still did experience something in the short time he was fused with the living sword.

After few seconds of watching his sword convulsing in pain helplessly, Kisame saw something even more horrifying.

Slowly, the scales which were quite prominent on the sword started to fall, and the sword started to melt from inside, still screeching in pain. Then, suddenly the screeching stopped.

There was a complete silence in the dome of water.

Inside the mindscape of B, both Jyuki and B were shivering.

“Remind me, to not piss him off?” B was saying with a voice filled with horror.

“Agreed.” The beast agreed simply.

Not wanting to sustain such a chakra intensive technique anymore, Kisame released his massive water prison, causing a lot of water to splash around.

“You think just because I am without my sword, you will be able to kill me? Think again!” the shark ninja said that with confidence.

With some hand signs, Kisame created many water sharks from the surrounding water.

The sharks went after B, but now, he could use his Chakra without fearing that it would be absorbed by the enemy. So, by channeling lightning on his swords, B started to destroy the water sharks.

Kisame was in the process of making another attack, but with a burst of speed, B appeared on the right side of the shark like ninja, and cut his head before he could do anything.

It should be noted however, that the loss of his sword affected him much more than B thought. Otherwise, such an attack would be easily avoidable for someone like Kisame.

The last moments of his fading life were spent in being surprised because of the manner he was killed in, and wondering whether he would see Samehata in the afterlife if there was one.

* * *

(At the same time, in the shadows.)

While Naruto and B were busy dealing with their opponents, a man wearing an orange mask with one eye whole was also observing them.

The man was manipulating the Akatsuki organization from the shadows for years, not even Pain the leader of the organization was aware of his manipulations.

He joined as a member of the organization as a clumsy Shinobi, to keep even closer eye on the operations as they approach their completion.

Only one member of the organization was aware of his real plans, while only Nagato and the said member Zetsu, who died earlier, are aware of his name of Madara Uchiha.

Nagato thinks that it is his own plan to open the portal to the demon realm, and take control of it. But in reality, he was the one who planted the idea as a thought in his head.

When they all received the news about what Uzomaki was claiming, he did not take those claims lightly.

‘Could it be true? Is Nine Tails truly ceases to exist?’ he was thinking about this, while watching how differently the former container was fighting than previously reported.

Judging from the way he was fighting, and the techniques he was using, the claims appeared to be true.

As soon as he saw Kisame’s death, he started to move towards the eight tails container.

“Let’s see whether you can prove to be a useful tool to me again or not, Nagato.” He clearly was hoping that Nagato would either manage to weaken the demon, or capture him.

At this point, either of those options would do.

* * *

(With B.)

“Yeah, who’s the boss?

I am the boss!”

“Somehow, I suspect only a teenager would say something like that.” Jyuki was not impressed.

“Ah, at that age, people really do respect the real art.”

“You really want to argue about that with Naruto again?” Jyuki asked.

After all, demon or not, Naruto still is a teenager.

“I am not insane, yo!”

“I doubt it.” clearly, the beast did not believe the claim of sanity.

“Hello Eight tails Jinchuriki!” a cheerful voice said out of nowhere.

“What?” B was surprised. 

“Tobi is a good boy.” The voice continued.

B was baffled. He had seen some very eccentric Shinobi; he also knew he was one as well. But never like this one.

“Look in my eye, eight tails Jinchuriki!” the strange Shinobi said, appearing in front of B.

“What?” according to B, the situation was getting stranger and stranger.

Immediately, Madara started to manipulate the tail beast Chakra, which B was still using.

“No! B, disconnect the Chakra!” Jyuki warned.

But it was too late. B fell unconscious.

“Now to wait and see how this plays out.” Madara went back to observing the fight of Naruto and Konan.

* * *

(With Konan and Naruto.)

Konan did not exchange anymore words of banter with Naruto. Instead, she attacked with complete abandon, not even caring that she was doing damage to her own village, proving Yamato’s theory of her mind wash somewhat true.

Paper shurikens, animals and birds made of paper, disguised paper landmines, all of these assaulted the demon, while he tried to target the woman hovering in the air.

“Damn!” Naruto exclaimed, while slicing another paper bird which tried to explode him into pieces, “Come down here lady, I want to have some words with you.”

“We both know that she wouldn’t come down like that.” The sword said.

“What then? I only need her down for a moment.” Just for few moments, lady!

Naruto started to think.

‘Her target is the formally alive Chakra abomination, which lived inside me. By that relation, her target should also be me. Then…’

“I really don’t like that train of thought…” Yamato being attached to Naruto was clearly able to hear the demon’s thoughts.

“Be quiet Yamato, and let me prepare.” Naruto said, while refining his plan.

While anyone who saw the attacks of Konan, specially knowing that the person she is attacking is wanted alive, they would question her viciousness.

But she was attacking in this manner only because not only she was dealing with the strongest demon container, but a demon who in past already proved its strength.

“You could always release the form, you know.” The sword suggested.

“And spoil the fun?” in Naruto’s personal opinion, it wasn’t the time to release his form.

Unless he made a fuck up of the massive proportions and is about to be sealed... in that case, all the restrains will be let go of.

“Damn it. This was the kind of thinking which got me sealed last time!” contrary to Naruto’s thinking, Yamato was of the mind that they should waste this entire place already.

“Seal you say?” a few more moments of thinking followed.

“Yes! This could work out.” The demon said with a grin.

“But—“the sword tried to protest.

“Be quiet, and let me focus.” The demon said.

But a swarm of flying paper bombs interrupted him again.

Boooom!

‘He wouldn’t be affected by such an explosion. Where is he?’ Konan asked to herself, while still trying to find the demon from the air.

But it was proving hard to locate him among the constantly raining water, and the smoke surrounding the area from the latest explosion.

But slowly, the smoke dissipated, and the result brought a first emotion on the Konan’s face, a very pleased smile.

In the crater, was laying Naruto, who appeared to be quite injured, if judging from his moves. His sword was laying few feet away from him.

She slowly hovered, until she did arrive just above the still struggling demon.

Just when Konan was about to pick him up and transport Naruto to the area where they could start sealing the tail beast inside him, she saw a glowing square.

When the explosion happened, Naruto put a lifeless puppet of himself created from his own energy.

While Konan was busy in reveling in her victory, he was furiously working on the seal which could immobilize her.

As soon as the woman came close enough, the seal detected her Chakra signature, and started to glow, effectively limiting her movements in the air in the same area as the square.

Meanwhile, just in front of her eyes, the puppet started to disperse. It was not like a Shinobi clone, which would disappear with a puff of smoke. Instead, the puppet broke down in to the strands of demon energy slowly, until it disappeared entirely.

“No more running, or flying in your case.” The voice was tinged with a lot of smugness.

Realizing the danger, Konan flies as fast as she could, so she wouldn’t be in the immediate range of whatever the demon is planning.

But much to her increasing panic, no matter how high she gets, Konan was only able to move in the range of the square in the ground.

Then, Naruto appeared just outside of the square, his eyes glowing blue, and a massive beam of orange forming in both of his hands.

“This is going to be biggest yet. Hyper Beam!”

With that shout, the beam left his hands, heading directly for Konan. She tried to put a lot of shield like objects made of paper in front of the beam, but the beam just burned through them, and finally hit her.

The beam carried her very high on the sky, and just below the raining clouds, it exploded with a bright light.

“Heavenly attraction.” A voice said furiously, just behind the former Jinchuriki.

(Naruto Shippuden Soundtrack: Pain’s theme Jirei.)

Naruto started to fly as if the ground itself rejected him.

He saw there was a man, waiting to catch him as soon as he gets in the range. But the demon just stabbed Yamato into the ground, and by using the sword as an anchor, was able to stop his unexpected, and unwanted flight.

“Oy. How dare you use me like that!”

Ignoring Yamato’s outrage, Naruto took a closer look at the man.

“So, you are Pain, hmm?” the demon asked.

“Indeed. You gaze upon a god.” Pain answered, like a god should.

“What in the name? The shear arrogance!”

“Naruto, look at his eyes! “Yamato’s sudden shout caused the demon to look up in the Pain’s eyes.

“Why? What’s so special about them—oh shit.” He recognized them.

Naruto saw how the eyes of Pain have circles, and rippling patterns. Aside from those qualities, those eyes were nothing more than a pupilless orbs.

“Yeah. Exactly. Look around yourself as well.” The sword continued.

Naruto did exactly as Yamato said. With each more person he found with the same eyes, his own eyes continued to get wider and wider under his sunglasses.

‘Naruto, take out the orange hared one.’ Yamato said mentally.

‘They all have orange hares.’ Came the sarcastic reply.

‘I meant that one, behind the leader of the group.’ The sword clarified.

‘Why?’ the demon asked again.

‘Later.’ Yamato did not want to explain now.

“Very well.” Naruto said verbally.

“You are awfully confident that you will escape the judgement of a god.” Pain said, unaware of the mental conversation.

“Confident? I have already escaped if there is one.”

Not wanting to give his enemy any chances, Naruto used his teleportation technique instead of a usual burst of speed. In a flash of gold which appeared in a shape of an eagle, he appeared next to the person Yamato indicated.

By the time the main one turned around, the body was already cut in half. Naruto slashed it into more pieces, just to be thorough.

Pain did not give any other sign of distress in this development, other than some twitching on his eyes.

“It would appear that demons do not have any sense of self preservation. Provoking a god like that?” before, Pain was sure that he would effortlessly manage to capture Naruto.

Now? He was furious.

“Oh, get over it already. I know you’re not a god.” The demon said flippantly, not at all worried.

“And all of them do not have same eyes either. Only one does. It is a sign of the controller.” Yamato was trying to think how can six people have same eyes.

“Your sword appears to be quite knowledgeable.” Pain said, impressed.

Considering the only sentient sword he has experience with was Samehata, he was impressed that there was a weapon which has a human level intelligence.

“Good thing I am his wielder then, isn’t it?” the demon said proudly.

“You won’t be able to wield it once you’re dead. It will be very useful.” Pain was eying the sword.

“And attitude just like that ensured that you will never get my cooperation.” Yamato said with an Icey voice.

“Irrelevant. You will obey whoever is wielding you.” Pain said with complete confidence in his voice.

“Naruto? Shut him up.” Yamato said, very agitated.

“Fine.” The demon was glad to fulfill the wishes of his sword.

Naruto extended three fingers of his right hands, and three beams of energy appeared on the tip of his extended fingers. He fired them one after another.

On Pains side, another one of the controlled bodies ran in front of the main body without hesitation.

Much to Naruto’s surprise, the body, a round shaped man who Naruto thought was an unfit guy when he was alive, absorbed all three of the beams.

But it was the Pain’s turn for being surprised, because just in few moments, the body melted. Nothing but a puddle remained as a sign that there was a person standing there just few seconds ago.

“Really? Absorbing Yoki, so much at once?” Naruto couldn’t believe these people.

Since his arrival, he has been telling them that he is a demon, not a human.

That alone should make their guards up, and made them extra cautious of him. Yet, Akatsuki keep treating him like a normal human.

If that body would have absorbed the Chakra of a normal Shinobi, there was no doubt that the Shinobi would have been in trouble. But absorbing the Yoki from a demon?

“I am sure if he knew, he wouldn’t do that.” Yamato tried to raise the faith in these people.

To Pain, it confirmed that Uzomaki’s claims of being becoming a demon were true.

That or maybe he found some long lost extra ordinary technique. Neither of the possibilities appealed to him.

Another one of Pain’s body moved from the formation, Naruto was still thinking why they weren’t attacking him together yet.

The body opened its head, and a canon can be seen mounted on the scull. Naruto was very amazed to see something like that.

As the demon continued to watch the weapon curiously, the canon started to fire what appeared to be missiles on the demon.

“Hahahahahahahaha! Now the only thing which this body needs to do is grow a turtle like shell, hide the weapons inside it, and call itself Humungousaur!” Naruto said and laughed in great amusement, all the while dodging the missiles coming his way.

At such a description, Yamato shivered. ‘It better does not come true.’ He thought. ‘We really don’t need the watch wearing, egoistic teens.’

But something like that can only keep his attention for so long, and after a while, Naruto got bored.

In a burst of golden flash, (which was shapeless this time,) he appeared next to the body.

He tried to grab it, but the body grew some blades and tried to stab him. Naruto’s expression morphed in to the righteous fury. It was almost as if some great injustice was being done to him!

“How, how dare you try to stab me! I was only trying to capture you for some experiments, and you dare to do that to meeee!” Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, forgetting that the body was in the control of Pain.

“No matter.” he said, calm down a little. “I will simply tare you into the pieces.”

Naruto’s body was surrounded by fire, and under his sunglasses, his eyes started to glow orange. From his body, five blasts of fire came out, and were headed towards the mechanical body.

“Fire Blast!”

If Naruto would have fired the attack from the long range, the body would have a chance to dodge. But Naruto fired the attack from the distance of few meters.

Pain’s Asura body was quite sturdy. It could take devastating attack from any Shinobi and still come out on top shape.

But this was not some Shinobi elemental attack. Instead it was an attack formed by a demon technique. It also was not using Chakra. Instead, the attack was formed using Yoki.

Pain turned his puppet into a mechanical armor. But under the heat, the armor melted.

Boooom!

The melted pieces of the body flew everywhere.

“Hahahaha! Take that bitch!” Naruto’s laughter echoes around the empty village.

While Naruto was busy gloating at the Asura path, he was suddenly grabbed from behind. He was swiftly put on a submission hold.

‘Yikes! Why did he grab me like that?’

“Maybe he will rape you?” Yamato said, with too much interest in the Naruto’s opinion.

‘In the name of the universe, no!’ Naruto was quite anguished in such a development... mentally of course.

But Yamato’s prediction did not come true. Instead, it was entirely different matter, though no less concerning.

Apparently, this body of Pain possesses soul extracting powers. And it was trying to extract Naruto’s soul.

“Oy, oy, I am a demon. So, it would be natural if I have soul manipulation powers, and if I tampered with them no one would raise an eyebrow. But aren’t you supposed to be a god? What would people think?” Naruto frantically tried to appeal to the god.

“I would store your soul inside the king of hell. Then I will extract your demonic essence from it. It should prove just as well for my plans, in fact, it might be much better than the tail beasts.” Alas, the god is appeared to be a heartless one, and he denied the appeals of demon in court of god.

“But I destroyed that one.” Naruto said in a tone which anyone would have been present there, would definitely not call whining… yeah totally not whining.

“Hmph. You clearly know that I am using these bodies as puppets. What makes you think I can’t use these abilities by myself?”

In actuality, Naruto didn’t know which body possessed those powers, but he was sure that he destroyed it.

“The fact that you need puppets for channeling these abilities?” the demon said, all the traces of fear gone.

“A result of an unfortunate accident I assure you. Now, let’s continue!” Pain commanded the Human path to continue to extract the demon’s soul.

“Oh, hell no!” but the demon was not willing.

Demonic aura started to come out of Naruto’s body. Then, a very large, but focused explosion took place.

Boooom!

The explosion was focused in such a way that despite being containing large amounts of energy, it only took place around Naruto, and the puppet body of Pain. Due to such a large focused energy blast, the body was vaporized.

While Naruto and the main body of Pain were busy bantering with each other, the last body which was not occupied by the handful of a demon was constantly making summoning hand signs.

But for some reason, it’s all attempts were proving to be unsuccessful.

Unknown to Pain, before Naruto decided to crash in the rainy village, he put four-pointed anti-summoning seals around the village. For someone like who have a great amount of knowledge about seals, this was not a very hard task to accomplish.

Despite the explosion being focused in a small area, its sound was still loud enough to distract the puppet body. It stopped its attempts of summoning a creature to holding down the demon.

Pain was very shocked. Yes, he expected to the loss of two bodies at least in the combat against the demon. Even the loss of three bodies wouldn’t be that much surprising.

But four of them? Before this train of thought can continue any longer, it was derailed in the most brutal manner.

“Take that, bitch!”

Naruto appeared before the summoner, kicked the body in the chin sending it flying in the air. When it started to come down, Naruto chopped it with very fast speed into small pieces.

“Ah, the pop-up combos. Gotta love those.” Yamato commented.

* * *

(Inside of the godly tower.)

Nagato’s eyes opened out of the shock.

Each of those Shinobi whose body he was using, were carefully chosen by keeping the abilities he was about to channel through them in mind.

Of course, he did not acquire them easily. And now, they all were destroyed. Including the means of restoring them.

But the moment of shock was over; instead it was replaced by grim determination. He closed his eyes, and once again focused on his main body, which portrays the gimmick of Pain.

* * *

(Back to the battle of the Demon and God.)

Nagato, controlling his puppet body, decided to use his one of the most devastating techniques.

He clapped both of his hands, and uttered the words. “Heavenly Body Bursting from the Earth!”

Immediately, a black sphere appeared in Pain’s hands, and he hurled it in to the air. The sphere started to attract all the things around it.

All the things, destroyed buildings, metal pipes, and even the debris from the ground.

“Oh hell no.”

Naruto realized what was the purpose of all that. He would not be sealed inside of the object which would be created from this technique like a, like a common fairy tale villain!

His body was surrounded by the fire, and he started to prepare the biggest Fire Blast he was about to fire since he became a demon.

“Fire Blaaaaast!”

Just like all the surrounding things, the attack was also pulled towards the black sphere. While Fire Blast was not a very fast attack by itself, but due to the intense gravitational pull of the orb in the sky, it went towards its target much faster.

Boooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm!

After the explosion, the ground was shaken badly. The sphere was destroyed, and flaming debris was falling everywhere.

The technique had taken its toll. Pain was on his knees. He was huffing and puffing badly. But even then, his eyes were trying to find his enemy.

“N-not good. I need time, time to recover. Time to—“his mutterings were interrupted.

“Hay there almighty. Forgotten about me?” a voice said.

“No.” this time, it was Pain who was showing the expression of fear.

Naruto stabbed Yamato to the ground. Strangely the sword did not complain this time.

The reason was obvious after few seconds. Five portals opened around Pain. A fist came out one of the two portals which were in front of him, and punched him.

After the last attack he pulled, Pain was not in any condition to resist. He immediately fell down.

Now, two portals were close to his hands, two around his legs, and one was above his head. Hands came out of all of those, and grabbed both of Pains arms, his legs, and the head.

“N—no. Heavenly subjugation…” he tried to say.

“No more subjugation!” the mortals have decided... that they will no longer be subjugated by the Heavens!

Soon, all the limbs and Pain’s head were ripped from his torso, and the portals closed. Only leaving behind his torso.

“Fatality!” Naruto announced.

“Do you want to attract his attention?” Yamato slapped Naruto in the mindscape.

Shivering, Naruto replied. “Not at all.”

“Good. Now that we no longer are about to attract the attention of people hellbent on conquering everything they see in front of them, what’s next in the schedule?” the sword asked.

“Simple. Let’s go and deal with the hiding god.” The demon said, expecting another battle.

“Great!”

* * *

(Inside of the God tower.)

The tower was very huge. And trying to find a single man inside it, when you actually never seen the said man was difficult.

But Naruto was a demon. So, have some perks which naturally come with it.

One of them is that heighten sensory abilities. Though since it has been not very long since he became a demon, Naruto did not have very firm grasp on it. But still, by matching same feel of energy which was coming from the puppet bodies, and tracking the energy to a room in the tower, Naruto managed to find Nagato.

Expecting a splendid and haughty man sitting on some sort of thrown waiting for him, Naruto kicked the door with an expectation of another fight.

“I am here god, and now—“

Naruto saw the condition of the said god.

(Naruto Shippuden soundtrack: Indra and Asura.)

The man was skinny, as if he was much older than his original age. Considering that he was trained by Jiraiya, Naruto was thinking that he shouldn’t be older than thirty-five.

Not only that, but he also was strapped on a machine, which most likely helped him in moving.

“Man! If you are the god, I wonder in what condition are the real ones.” Naruto said, very disappointed.

“Whatever. My body is not important, what is important are my plans. Plans to bring peace to this world!” the man said passionately.

“Peace? How exactly are you going to do that?” in Naruto’s mind, in his current condition, he couldn’t even defend himself, let alone bring peace.

“By the power of the all combined tail beasts, I would have opened the portal to the demon world. By the same combined power, I would have made the entire demon realm submit to me, and take control of them. By their power, I would have ruled this world with an iron fist. And I would have brought an unprecedented era of peace!” the man finished.

“I notice you are saying ‘Would,’ instead of ‘Will.’ Why is that?”

“You are here. You have destroyed my puppet bodies; my closest friends’ body was one of them. You killed Konan, my only original friend remaining. You destroyed Akatsuki, this village as well. I really don’t have much hope left.” Nagato said, sagging down.

“Hm. That main body then, did it belong to your other friend?” the demon asked.

Nagato nodded, but didn’t say anything more.

Naruto sighed. “Fine. Tell me one more thing. Where are the civilians? Or other Shinobi for that matter? I didn’t even fight a single Shinobi from this village, aside from the Akatsuki. But let’s be honest, they don’t belong to any village at all.” Though Naruto wouldn’t have batted an eyelash before killing those Shinobi.

But in the case, they recognized that it was the matter between higher powers, in that case, he would leave them.

“They all have been relocated a long time ago. I knew that sooner or later; someone would find out that this is the main base of Akatsuki. I do not want to involve those civilians who have nothing to do with this organization, or those Shinobi who also have nothing to do with my purpose. But what does it matter? You would just find them and kill them all. It would have been better if you understood the value of peace.” Nagato really did not have much hope in the demon.

“Peace this, peace that. Since the moment I was born, I have nothing like peace. Besides, I have an example for you.” The demon said.

Naruto created a fireball in his right palm, and throws at Nagato. The leader of Akatsuki just closed his eyes, waiting for the end, which much to his surprise did not come then.

The fireball blasted the wall next to him, creating an improvised window, from which the signs of the devastating battles which took place few minutes ago can be seen.

Naruto came to the blasted wall and looked down.

“Tell me Nagato. What do you see?”

For the moment, Nagato thought to use his Chakra rods. After all, the demon was standing so close to him, just one surprise attack, and one stab later his plans can continue forward.

But he squashed such ideas. He had fought for his ideals, and lost. Better to except it, after all, unlike most of the events of his life which were all governed by other people’s plan, or the wars started by others, this decision was solely for him.

So, he turned around, and saw what the demon was referring to.

“Destroyed landscape, few bodies, damaged and collapsed buildings, and a ghost town.” Nagato described what he was seeing.

“Exactly. Your peace which you wanted to create.... It would be exactly like this. Plus, few more thousand bodies added for good measure. Maybe even more than that.”

“What? Impossible! I admit, there would be few resistances at first, but very soon people would have learned the reality of the situation.” Nagato did not want to believe.

“Maybe. But let’s say that happened. Even then, the peace wouldn’t last for very long. There would be always someone there to resist you, always there to stand and block your way.” The demon continued to hammer the reality relentlessly.

“Then, do you say that the peace in this world is impossible?” Nagato asked, not really wanting to know the answer. Yet, he couldn’t stop himself from asking that question.

“Well, the peace is possible in a perfect world. Perfect world is impossible to create, and thus by that logic, peace is impossible.”

“But there is one more factor to this.” Nagato nodded for the demon to continue.

“You see, for all there warring and general destruction and greed, one thing people of this world despise is that being controlled by someone. So, they will resist you. In a way, you will manage to unite them against yourself.” The demon said.

In a sense, he could bring the era of closest of Peace.

“Look at me for example. I hated how people of the Leaf expected me to put up with their hate, and general dislike, yet the people who ran the village expected me to be their weapon. The philosophy of being a tool as a Shinobi for my village... never agreed with me. Thus, I rebelled. I am sure if I ever met my old pals from the Leaf, their most asked question would be: why? No matter whether I give them thousand explanations, they will never understand.”

Though they both are enemies, and have stood in each other’s way, Nagato understood Naruto Uzomaki a little bit better.

“Then I don’t want to live in this rotten world. And I also refuse to die by any other person’s hand, except you.” Since he has been beaten by Naruto, it was only right to die by his hands.

Pain, the leader of Akatsuki, the god, Jiraiya’s student, and the man simply known as Nagato lowered his head. “Finish my miserable existence.” He said, in a very bitter tone.

When Naruto entered in the room, he was expecting a battle, which would ultimately destroy the tower, and escalate outside, where either he would finish Pain, or die trying. Being captured was not an option.

But this? He never expected something like this.

“Very well.” Yamato appeared in the demon’s hand, and one swift slash later Nagato was no more.

Not wanting anyone to get their hands on Nagato’s eyes, or his body in general, Naruto vaporized his head and body both for good measure.

But despite all that, a ring landed with a clattering sound right in front of Naruto. He lifted the ring, touched it to the ring on his own finger, and with a small light, the ring disappeared.

Instead, the kanji for four appeared on the ring of Naruto’s hand.

(End soundtrack.)

* * *

(Just outside of the god tower.)

“Do you here this, Yamato?”

“What, raining?” the sword asked, not getting the point of his wielder.

“No. I meant the silence of a ghost town.” The demon explained further.

“Oh yeah.”

“One of the few things which scares me.” Naruto admitted.

“Really, why?” as far as he knew Naruto, the demon does not seem to be scared by anything or anyone.

“Because I have spent my younger years in such silence. At least if I am around people, I can piss them off to make some noise. But here? There is no one here.” Such silence was grading on his nerves.

Right on that moment, a mask man appeared in front of Naruto through a portal, and tried to cut his head.

“Guess you spoke too soon.” Yamato said gleefully.

Naruto observed the mask man, who attacked Naruto unprovoked in the demon’s opinion. He tried to rack his memories, to remember that who could it be? After all, if he was getting attacked like this, Naruto must have offended him in the past.

But he did not remember anything about this mask man. He didn’t even see him before this day.

“You’re right. Who the hell are you?” the demon asked his attacker.

“Feel proud boy, for you stand in front of Madara Uchiha! A first one to do so in last fifty years or so.” The man introduced himself proudly.

“Riiiight. As if the members of Akatsuki never came in front of you.” The demon remarked sarcastically.

“The first one who came in front of me without my permission then.” The man was willing to edit the statement.

“Who do you think you are that I would take permission from you?” in Naruto’s opinion, he did not need anyone’s permission to do anything.

“A god.” The man answered, brimming with self-confidence.

“Not again.” A slapping sound can be heard in the empty village, as Naruto’s palm met his forehead.

“You have been a quite an obstacle on my plans, Uzomaki. But no more.” A sword appeared out of the same kind of teleport from which Madara came out and attacked the demon.

“Oy! How come I don’t have such a great entrance?” Yamato asked in an offended tone.

“Really? As if appearing out of nowhere in my hands are not enough.”

“Well, that does sound magical…” the sword trailed off, still not happy.

“Of course, it is. Besides, do you know how expensive those effects can be? Do you even know the cost of the fire effect alone?” the demon asked, looking at Yamato.

“Well back in my day—“Yamato tried to say, but was not allowed to complete.

“Current time.”

“Ahem.” Madara reminded them of his presence.

Naruto looked up, to see Madara gazing at him. “Oh yeah, have to kill an old man who should be dead by now.”

With reckless abandon, Naruto rushed Madara. And with more than unnecessary movements, Naruto slashed at the head of Uchiha.

Under his mask, Madara smirked in amusement. ‘It would appear his recent victories have made him quite over confident.’

So, to bring down that confidence, Madara kicked Naruto right on the center of his chest, sending him flying.

Regaining his breath, the demon cursed Yamato. “What the hell? You said you can cut through anything!”

“But I didn’t even feel anything at all. How am I supposed to cut something when it is not even there?” the sword said in protest.

Madara was watching the conversation of the sword and its wielder in amusement. But he felt the disturbance behind his back, so he turned around and slashed at the demon which was a clone most likely.

‘Interesting. He never used any clones before.’ Remembering the fights in which the demon was involved.

Again, Madara tried to kick the clone. But his foot passed through the clone.

‘Not a clone, but an image then.’

As soon as Naruto saw Madara attacking his illusive image, Naruto sneaked closer, and tried to relieve the Uchiha of his head.

But again, Yamato just passed through as if his body wasn’t even there.

The image dispersed, and Madara turned around.

Bam!

One brutal punch later, Naruto was flying... again.

Recovering quickly, he landed on his feet this time. But Madara, wanting to give no chances to his opponent, rushed him.

Clang, clang, clang! Clang!

Harsh sounds of swords clashing with each other were heard in the empty Land of rains. Until one exchange, during Madara stabbed the demon right on his chest.

Of course, Naruto tried to take advantage of this as well, (Despite feeling a lot of pain,) but again. Yamato past through the Uchiha.

“Damn it.” the demon cursed softly.

“You realize the futility of your struggles?” the Uchiha asked, not a sign of mercy in his eyes.

“Screw… you.”

“Defiant to the end, just like your clan.” And what a clan it was!

“Clan? What clan.” The demon was confused.

As much as he remembers, he is not the part of any clan.

“Don’t tell me, the Leaf didn’t even tell you about your own clan? From where your mother came from?” Madara asked in surprise, a hint of pity in his voice.

“Nothing…” Naruto whispered.

Madara clucked his tongue. “Poor thing, well you have to die without knowing your own history.” Just like that, all the hints of pity were gone from his voice.

“Why?” the demon asked.

“Why what?” the Uchiha asked in return.

“Why… am I so important for your… plans?” the demon asked more clearly, coughing more blood.

“You want to know? Fine. This I can tell you.” Madara was more than happy to gloat over his opponent.

“You see, there is a statue, called outer path. It is said that it is the body of the great demon which sage of the six paths defeated, and sealed inside of himself.”

“But later, when he grew too old to hold the demon, he divided the demon in to nine pieces. Also known as nine tailed beasts. By sealing all nine of the tail beasts inside of the statue, the great demon would be revived again.”

“But the ninth one…” Naruto tried to say.

“Ah. You absorbed that piece, true. But I believe you will prove to be much more potent for reviving that demon.”

“Anyway, once that demon is revived, I will seal it inside of myself, gaining its power in the process. Then, I will cast the strongest Genjutsu on the moon, which would be reflected to the whole world. Then, I will bring the unprecedented era of peace, the likes of which this world have never experienced before!” Madara finished telling his grand plan.

“Hahaha. Hahahahahaha!” whatever Madara was expecting, the laughter was not one of them.

“What is there to laugh about?” the Uchiha asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“You won’t bring any era. Instead, you will bring the unprecedented extinction, something like this planet has never witnessed before!”

“Words of a mad demon.” Madara disregarded the theory of Naruto.

“Mad, am I? I admit. At least my plans of being free from those people who seek to control me for their own purposes are understandable. But you? Assuming that animals do not get under your illusion, you will kill the entire human population, in about three to four days!”

“Lies!” the masked Uchiha was still not willing to believe.

“You fool! While your illusion will give them whatever dream life they want to have, in the real world they would be requiring food and water. Something which I remind you, illusion cannot generate. Thus, you will starve the entire world.” Naruto said, while looking at Madara.

“What the hell you know.”

“Oh, I know many things.” Then Naruto got up as if he was not bleeding on the ground few moments ago.

“What?” Madara was concerned with such development.

“One of the things I know: human weapons cannot kill me.”

Without any hesitation, Madara stabbed his sword in Naruto’s chest again. But this time, he didn’t pull out.

The demon looked down on the protruding sword from his chest. “Hmm! After a while, you really get used to the pain.”

“Not possible!” Madara was looking at the sword stabbed in the demon’s chest, yet the demon was not affected at all!

“Very much possible. While yes, you are very much capable of hurting me, you can’t kill me. Now, let me remember any demon magic with which I can kill you.”

Yamato coughed. “Only technique in your skills which could kill him when he is immobilized.”

“Oh yeah! Soul extracting.” Naruto said excitedly.

Just by the name of the technique alone, Madara was panicking. But when the demon put his right hand in front of his mask, his panic sky rocketed. He tried to get far, but for some reason was not able to move.

A shrill noise, as if a really old door covered in years of rust is suddenly forced open. After a scream of fear, rage, and disappointment, Madara’s soul was in Naruto’s hand.

“Hm. How interesting.” He muttered to himself.

“What?”

“Since my fabulous transformation—“the demon began self-importantly.

“I noticed how you always like to embellish that moment a lot…” Yamato tried to interrupt the self-gloating.

“This is the first time I have used my soul extracting.” The demon finished, ignoring Yamato.

“So?” the sword didn’t see the point.

“It appears I have slightly more control over this than before. I can even see his memories without even absorbing the soul.” The demon explained.

Naruto started to observe the life of the Madara Uchiha.

“Impressive, by human standards. Even in the demons, he would be in the mid ranks at least.” Yamato commented, while watching the same memories from the mental link.

“Really?” Naruto was surprised to hear that.

“Yes.”

He saw his early life, the wars, the friendships and betrayals he experienced, and done himself.

“Hahaha. The guy is almost similar in this regard to me.” Naruto laughed in amusement.

“Yes, the resemblance is uncanny.” Yamato said sarcastically.

All of that was interesting, but not too much. But among of those memories, one memory stood out between all.

“A tablet? Interesting. Looks like we have places to check out, Yamato.”

“Yes! More adventures, as we appear in the bursts of fire and water, cause havoc in the lives of mortals—“

“It is just a simple expedition on a dead and destroyed clan.” Naruto burst the bubble of dream of the sword.

“Dammit. “Yamato cursed.

Done watching his memories, Naruto released Madara’s soul. The white ball with spots of black here and there flew in to the air, and disappeared.

“Let’s find B and get out of here.” The demon said, not wanting to remain in the depressed land.

He walked to the place where Kisame and Konan ambushed them upon their entry on the Land of rain, and saw something gleaming in the ruins.

“I can’t be that lucky, can I? She exploded among the clouds!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Well, luck of the demon and all that.”

“True. True.” Naruto agreed.

Just like that, Naruto unified the Akatsuki ring of Konan. Now the ring was showing the kanji of five.

He approached the area of battle, which was destroyed on one side by explosions, and other was still overflowing with water.

“Where could he be gone?” Naruto said, while searching for the Shinobi.

“Maybe he found something or someone?”

“Much to my annoyance, possible.” Naruto was having the feeling that he killed whom B has found.

But instead of some sort of compromising position, Naruto found Killer B in a nearby area, unconscious. At least the area was protected from rain.

Naruto decided to wake his friend gently.

Slap!

“Who? What, where!” the Jinchuriki awoke with a surprised yelp.

“Get a hold of yourself.” Naruto ordered.

“Ah, Naruto.”

“Yes me. What were you doing here unconscious?” the demon asked.

“Well, after I killed the shark man, this guy calling himself Tobi appeared. He said he was a good boy. I don’t know what he did, but Jyuki was telling me to release the Chakra I was using. After that, I don’t remember.” B explained, not rapping for the moment.

“Well, you are lucky that I killed the guy. Otherwise, you would have been another successful capture for nonexistent Akatsuki, and your brother would have pealed me in half.” Naruto said.

“Really?” B asked, not believing.

“No. but he would try, at least.” Whatever their deal is, Naruto will not allow himself to be bullied by Raikage.

“True.” B sadly knew the gap between their powers.

“Let’s go. We’re done here.”

“Yeah, I really don’t like the rain much either.” B agreed, and they both left quickly.

“But before that, tell me. Did you retrieve the rings?” the demon asked.

“Of course!” B said, while giving Naruto two rings of Kisame and Zetsu.

After unifying them, the ring on Naruto’s finger was showing the kanji for seven.

* * *

(Outside of the Land of Rain.)

Darui and his team were waiting outside of the Land of Rain. It has to be said though, they were all very concerned by the safety of B, and not caring about Naruto much.

Once the explosions died down, they thought that either the signal would appear, or Naruto or B would appear. But none of that happened.

But Darui decided to wait for few more minutes before charging in.

Before he could give the order, both Naruto and B appeared in front of them, closing the distance fast.

They both stopped in front of them. Both of them were drenched in water, and both were sporting the signs of multiple battles. Naruto’s chest was also covered in his blood, but the people there didn’t know that.

” Mission accomplished.” Both of them said together.

“Fine. Can we leave already?” Karui asked.

“So hasty. Don’t you care about our injuries?” Naruto asked in a hurt tone.

“B, maybe. You? Not so much.” Samui said, brutally honest.

“How cold.” the demon said, not at all surprised.

Naruto brings out a paper out of the dimension where he stores Yamato and other valuable things which have the threat of being destroyed in the battle, and put it in the ground.

“If you want to come, surround me now, and put your hands on the people who have their hands on me.” They all did as he said.

He puts his finger on the paper, and focused. In a flash of gold, most of the people disappeared back to the village... except for the demon himself.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15.

Say goodbye, Itachi.

(In the Hidden Cloud.)

In a burst of flash, the team which left with Naruto and B returned.

Knowing the teleportation capabilities of the demon, Raikage have set some advance points to receive the people who appear from such teleports. After they are all checked out, (Making sure that know unwanted person used something like that is important for the security,) they all appeared in the Raikage’s office.

“How come he did not return with us?” Darui asked, after noticing that Naruto wasn’t with them at the checkpoint.

“Could it be that he has something more to do?” Samui asked in no one in particular.

Strangely enough for the Shinobi, B did not say anything at all.

* * *

(With Jiraiya, a small town.)

Jiraiya was stopping in a small town to collect some information about different events in the elemental nations.

Just because he was on a way to Rain did not mean that the rest of the world stopped conspiring against the Leaf.

As usual for him, he was spending his remaining time on the town on a bar, that suddenly, someone, who was in Jiraiya’s opinion was Shinobi, appeared in front of him.

“Ninja delivery service, lord Jiraiya.”

Immediately, he relaxed his guard, as much as he could in front of another Shinobi.

The man dropped the envelope at the table, and disappeared in front of the spy master’s eyes.

‘If only more Shinobi learned to do that,’ in the opinion of the toad sage, todays ninjas just don’t have the education as they used to receive in his time...

After sensing the letter for any Chakra based traps or seals, Jiraiya picked it up. While the delivery service has a clean record of no assassination through messages, he still was a paranoid one.

He opened the envelope, read the letter inside it, and promptly sat up from his chair.

Very quickly, he paid the bill to the bar, checked out of the inn he was staying in, and started to run towards Leaf as fast as possible.

* * *

(In the Leaf, Hokage’s office.)

Tsunade, one of the three legendary Sannin, was doing the paperwork.

Apparently, in such chaotic times, the paperwork also increased.

When the Shinobi council met for their monthly meeting, she proposed that they should organize these administrative duties, so the Hokage can take better decisions, instead of bogged down with the mountain of papers, and getting mentally exhausted.

But naturally, her proposal was rejected on the grounds that as a Hokage, she really can’t shirk these duties on others. In her personal opinion, she thought that those old politicians didn’t want her to look in their activities.

So, keep her pinned down with the mountain of paperwork. Sometimes, she felt that she should just lift one of those chairs, and bash those members to death.

She also was getting worried on the spy master’s behalf, after all it has been years since anyone have gotten any news from the Land of Rain.

And considering who was the leader of that hellhole, her worry was not unfounded. Hanzo, if still alive, could still pose a danger.

“Huhuhuhu! Just lean forward a little…” a voice stated from the windows.

Tsunade sighed. “Just enter you perve.” ‘At least he returned safely.’ She thought.

“What? Not happy to see me safe?” Jiraiya asked as he noticed her mood.

“Right now, your biggest threat to safety is me.” She threatened him casually.

“True. True.” But it has been such a long time he has been a teammate to her, that he didn’t even bother to acknowledge the threat.

But then, Jiraiya entered in to the room, a serious look upon his face. His expression was enough to tell Tsunade that whatever news he has brought, was not good.

“So, spill. What is it?”

“As of this moment, the Land of rains is no more.” Was his completely blunt answer.

“What?” Tsunade said, shocked.

But apparently, Jiraiya was not done with shocking news.

“Also, Akatsuki… is no more.”

“What!” this time, Tsunade’s voice was more like a roar.

* * *

(Ten minutes later…)

Due to such shocking news one after another, Tsunade decided to call their third teammate.

“So, in short, both the Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain have been destroyed. It would be safe to state that the Akatsuki was using that Country as a base.” The snake like man said.

“It would also be safe to say that Hanzo is dead for a long time. I can’t see him allowing anyone to use his village like that.” Tsunade deduced.

“True. And we all know who destroyed them.” Jiraiya said not at all happy with the conclusion.

“Uzomaki.” Orochimaru said the name out loud.

“Damn it. I thought we had more time than this.” Tsunade cursed.

“There is nothing we could do about this.” Orochimaru said.

“Jiraiya, did you find out anyone who could be a traitor and be close to him?” the slug Sannin asked.

“Sadly, no. I did checked people who were associated with him, their histories, their interactions. And nothing of the sort stands out. As for the ramen stall? They are just honest civilian family.”

“No leads then.” Tsunade was disappointed.

“Yes.”

“So, any ideas what we can do?” she asked both of them.

“Make sure that only Jonin are the ones who engage him in combat.” Orochimaru reasserted the point.

After all, Asuma’s mistakes cannot be repeated.

“Also, I will make some changes to the seal matrix, this will ensure that he won’t be able to just teleport in the village whenever he wants. Also, this will block any other teleportation technique more advance than the body flicker.”

* * *

(Down in a secret hideout, beneath Uchiha clan compound.)

Flames were spinning like a tornado, and a figure stepped out of them.

Naturally, this was Naruto Uzomaki, former Shinobi of the Leaf, the demon extraordinaire.

But right now, nothing of interest holds for him in the outer village, instead he was here for the stone tablet which he saw in Madara’s memories.

After all, there are very few old artifacts are left in this world, most of them useless in the Demon’s opinion.

But something like a written stone tablet? This could be very interesting, and possibly useful.

“Wow. Looks like the place of a cult’s meeting.” Yamato commented.

“Well, judging by what we saw in that man’s memories, they were a cult of some sort.” The demon agreed, while looking at the place which used to hold Uchiha clan meetings, and since long snuffed out torches.

“True.”

Naruto took a closer look to the tablet.

“This can’t be, can it?” the demon said in wonderment.

“What?” Yamato asked.

“The man like the Sage of the six paths... wouldn’t leave something so simple in writing, would he?” Naruto asked, while looking at the words written on the tablet.

“Well, it’s not like that I knew the guy personally or anything.” Yamato commented sarcastically.

After few more moments, Yamato spoke again.

“Maybe it is covered with an illusion?”

“Illusion? But the illusions shouldn’t affect me.” Naruto denied the theory.

“As long as they are made by Chakra, they won’t affect you.” Yamato reminded.

“You’re right.” He lifted his hand to dispel the illusion, but Yamato stopped him again.

“Wait.”

“What?” the demon asked, lowering his hand.

“At least read what is written here. You only saw the bits and pieces which were relevant to Madara. There can be yet things which he ignored.” The sword suggested.

“Good idea! I knew there was a reason I kept you around despite your unceasing chattering.” Naruto said, grinning.

“Ha, ha. Very funny.”

Done with quipping with his sword, Naruto started to read the tablet.

On the tablet, there were a lot of things written. One of them was the story of the princess and a god tree. (Footnote: I assume that you already know the story. It went the same way in this verse as well.)

“Wait,” the demon was saying after the reading the story, “So the so call demon was a planted tree? This is concerning.”

“you’re right. What if there are more people with the seeds of such trees?”

Aside from that, there were things written about Uchiha clan politics, Uchiha clan secrets. Things about Mangekyo Sharingan, the process to obtain it, its risks, and the power to control the tail beasts.

“I suspect because all the Chakra relates to that tree, this form of Sharingan most likely reacts with the Chakra of the tail beasts as well.” Naruto theorized.

“And that is how the person with those eyes can control them.” Yamato was agreeing with the demon.

There were other bits of information, which to a historian would be very important. But to Naruto, that information was useless.

“See? Nothing.”

“Fine, fine, you can dispel the illusion most likely created by a demon.” Yamato couldn’t believe the impatience of some people.

“No need to sound so miffed.” Naruto brings his hand up, just like before, and exclaimed, “Release!”

Immediately, the stone tablet shimmered, and new words appeared on it. also, the scratch marks, which Naruto felt someone else had done, so they can erase somethings and write other things, also disappeared as well.

Naruto started to read again, this time paying more attention.

To the person who actually discovered the illusion, congratulations. You already have the energy which took me an entire lifetime to learn, and use.

While people did not know many true demons, I did meet one from the dimension called Hell. The conversation was... enlightening, to say the least.

While many people might hate you for what you are, no this: I am not as same as them. the only thing which I have for you is the warning.

Learn it, for it may serve you well. The beings who claim to be the gods of this universe, are pretenders.

As Naruto was done reading, the words disappeared, and the old writing as well as the scratch marks appeared again.

The words may have disappeared from the tablet, but they were imprinted in Naruto’s mind. Still, he did not understand them, thus he was very confused.

“Yamato, does this make sense to you?”

“No, not to me either.”

Few minutes of silence, during which the sword and wielder both thought about what they have read.

“He did meet a demon, as in an actual demon. So, he would know that his illusion can only be dispelled by the demon energy.” Yamato was thinking out loud.

“You’re right.” Naruto said, “But why would he leave a message to a demon?”

“’ The beings who claim to be the gods of this universe, are pretenders.’ What exactly does that mean?”

“Whatever it is Naruto, you won’t get those answers here.”

“correct. Guess this is time to leave.” In a burst of fire, the demon disappeared, leaving the tablet undisturbed, as same as it was for ages.

Naruto was quite lucky that he left at the time he did, because as soon as he left, Jiraiya was done with anti-teleportation seals, and put the teleportation barrier around the village. If the demon was even a second late, he would have to find some another way to get out of the leaf undetected.

* * *

(At the gates of the Hidden Cloud.)

Naruto entered in the village, covered with the illusion made by the demonic energy.

He wouldn’t like to be held by the gate guards... it did not turn out well for either of the party’s previous times. At least he got an ally out of the whole thing.

Meanwhile on the streets of cloud, strange situations were taking place.

Two merchant caravans collided with each other. the Chunin who were investigating the incident found that the road signs were changed, leading to the accident.

On a different area filled with bars and drinking clubs, a brawl was taking place between the mob, apparently it all started with some goods being stolen from a shop, and said goods being found on a different shop.

* * *

(In the office of Raikage.)

An ANBU appeared before Raikage, and after giving a prompt salute, began his report.

“Lord Raikage, strange events are taking place in the village. A merchant caravan collided with other one, the investigation found that the road signs were changed.”

‘What could be so strange about this? Just a rebuke to the road inspector, and the problem should be solved.’ The Raikage thought.

Before he could reach for the form which could begin the process however, the ANBU continued his report.

“Also, several brawls on the bars. But the difference between these brawls and usual everyday drunken brawls is that, they all took place between various groups.”

The large man raised an eyebrow. ‘This doesn’t look good.’

“Supplies have been tampered with, leading to the anger of the administrative personnel. These occurrences have been compared by some senior Shinobi to previous records, and they found the same pattern, about one and a half years ago.” The Shinobi concluded his report.

The Raikage started to massage his head.

But then, the ANBU and Raikage both heard some screams and cursing... just outside of the office.

The ANBU swiftly opened the door, to find the newly hired administrative Shinobi, as per the suggestion of the Naruto, screaming at the same person.

The Raikage got up from his desk, and came behind ANBU. Dew to his greater Hight, he was able to see everything.

“What happened?” A asked.

“Nothing.” The demon replied, while looking at still raging woman in amusement. “She just told me that I don’t have an appointment with you.”

‘Of course, you decided to retaliate like this.’ He thought, but did not say it out loud.

“Just get in already,” the Raikage sighed.

After A dismissed the ANBU, and both Naruto and A sat down, he gave the demon a sharp look.

“I heard the report, so you won’t need to explain what happened to me again.” he took a deep breath.

“What I want to no, why did you endangered B?”

“Did he tell you what exactly happened?” Naruto asked in return.

“No. he was acting very evasive.”

“fine. Let me explain. When I was busy dealing with other members of Akatsuki, this guy snuck up on him. Apparently, he was calling himself ‘A good boy.’” The demon started to explain, snickering a little at the last part.

“What?” A asked flatly.

“Well, according to him, the Shinobi was saying something along those lines. He most certainly was not saying anything like that when he came to capture me.”

The large man heaved a sigh. “And he most likely put his guard down.”

“Exactly.”

“I am never going to let him live this one down.”

“Do as you want.” Naruto didn’t care what the brothers did to each other.

“Great then. Now there is this paperwork which I would like you to—“

Before A could complete suggesting what he would like Naruto to do with the paperwork, Naruto disappeared in a vortex of flames.

“Damn it.” he cursed.

Since he implemented the suggestions of the demon, he only have to deal with enough paper work which would cause a desk to creak a little, instead of towering piles of his own Hight.

Still, he wanted to dump the work on the demon, since there was nothing important or security related was on it, and spend the time with Mabui. But before he could do so, the demon disappeared.

“Ah well, nothing for it then.”

Fired up, he started to go through the papers on his desk again, looking forward to the free time he would have after this work.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

Appearing in his apartment, (Which through his cunning, he appropriated from its previous denizen,) the demon breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Phew. Good thing I am so shrewd and intelligent, otherwise that old bear would have trapped me.’

“Done praising yourself?” Yamato, like a good sword interrupted his wielder’s self-gloating.

“Yes.” Naruto replied, not even thinking about it.

“I swear. Sometimes, you act like the most self-absorbed individual.” The only feeling the sword got from Naruto, was more amusement. “At least tell me what are going to be your future plans?”

“First, let’s see how many rings I have got.” The demon said.

“Now we are getting somewhere.” Anything was better than undeserved self-gloating.

“My first ring was from Sasori, the second and third one from that stitched up freak, and that grim reaper wanabe. Fourth one from Nagato, fifth was from Konan, sixth and seventh are from that shark, and plant.” Naruto counted the rings of Akatsuki he had acquired so far.

“You are missing three of them.”

“Exactly. Let’s see whether I can predict their location or not. Itachi was a spy for the leaf, and that Madara guy sent him for some mission that much is clear from his memories. As soon as he gets the news that the Akatsuki is dead, he will try to get to the Leaf. Orochimaru we already know is with the Leaf, wait. Where is that blond asshole Deidara!” the demon screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Um, you are a blond as well, and not a particularly nice one.”

“True. Well, I am sure I will find him.” Naruto did not deny the accusations of Yamato.

“Yeah, but how exactly are you going to track Itachi? Deidara would reveal his location sooner or later due to the love of explosions, but Itachi would be harder to track.”

“The key to find him lies with Sasuke.” Naruto said cryptically.

“Really?” some disbelief evident on the voice of Yamato.

“More along the lines of his blood.” The demon clarified.

“Ah, that.”

“Exactly.”

Three days later, a small and unassuming raven delivered a note to the demon, in which the location of Sasuke was stated. Giddy with such information, he left his birthday party, and left the Cloud quickly.

incidentally, this was the time when Raikage’s blood pressure came down to its usual level.

* * *

(With Sasuke and Deidara.)

After escaping from the team of Leaf and Orochimaru, (Really, getting away when they weren’t looking,) Sasuke gathered some allies and tried to find Itachi.

Unfortunately for him, instead of finding his brother, (Whom he wanted to kill, no doubt about it,) he found Deidara.

The mad bomber, seeing a chance to stick one to the Itachi, caught this chance with both of his hands. One explosion technique after another, and Deidara was regretting the chance now.

“Just tell me where is Itachi now, and I will spare you.” Sasuke said, in a very generous tone. At least in his opinion.

“I am not telling you anything, yeah!” Deidara, kicked the generousness away, like the yesterday’s trash.

Also, he sent several creatures made of clay to distract Uchiha, so he could make another explosion.

Sasuke, in response, just sighed and turned off his Sharingan, and a stream of lightning later, all those creatures the mad bomber send at his way were lying dead, nothing more than useless clay now.

This, in the process, triggered Deidara, (Well triggered him more than he already was,) causing him to decide to use his most powerful technique.

“you, you, you! You’re just like your brother, aren’t you? Just looking me with disdain. Well, after this, nothing but the pieces of your body would remain!” he said, all the while a mad grin on his face.

He produced more clay, and after ripping his shirt, unstitching the mouth on the place of his heart, fed the clay to that mouth.

While nothing showed on his face, Sasuke was very disturbed. As in, Kabuto and Orochimaru levels of disturbing.

On a side note, Sasuke decided to go on a side quest, and kill the person who taught Kabuto. That would be a favor to the world, really.

‘Strange, what exactly is the side quest?’ the Uchiha asked himself… in his thoughts of course.

“You are dead, you hear me, Uchiha!”

* * *

(With Naruto.)

Naruto teleported in a vortex of fire, close to the location of Sasuke.

He was really hoping that the person who gave him that information was right, otherwise for wasting his time, he will track down him or her, and would do unspeakable things to them.

Right now, he was jumping from tree to tree, an activity which was very amusing to him, after all this was the reason why he didn’t teleport directly to the location. That, and if his target was involved in a battle, he really doesn’t want to appear right in the middle of it.

To express his happiness at the current streak of successes one after another, he was singing without any care in the world.

“Come, come, my love.

Your lover is searching for you.

Came in my dreams today,

Come, come in my life.”

“You know, considering whom you are searching, I wonder whether you have some... other intensions.” Yamato just couldn’t resist from saying that.

Naruto halted, though it was a conflict worthy of a war story, he was very furious that his trusted sword would insinuate something like that. On the other hand, he was shocked that his trusted sword would insinuate something like that.

“Hm. You really are getting out of the hands these days, perhaps a punishment is in order? What do you thing about a pink scabbard?”

“But, but that is so unmanly!” came the horrified reply of Yamato.

“Exactly.”

Few moments later, Yamato spoke again.

“I’ll be good.”

“Better.”

‘Phew.’ Yamato breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Potential embarrassment averted.’

While Yamato was happy that he won’t have to endure a pink scabbard, Naruto was continuing to move towards the position of Sasuke.

But suddenly, he heard a laugh, not just any sort of laugh mind you, the laughter of the mad ones.

“Watch, and capture this picture in those eyes of yours, as I leave a scar upon this very earth!” the mad voice was saying.

Hearing that, Naruto have a strange expression appear on his face.

“Be glad Uchiha,” the voice continued. “As you get to be the part of a momentous occasion of an explosion, an explosion so loud, so bright, and so destructive, that it will leave an unforgettable scar upon this planet!”

After the voice was finished, Naruto spoke. “Well, looks like we have to get there by the fast way, Yamato.”

“Yeah, because the lunatic doesn’t seem to be inclined to wait.”

* * *

(With Sasuke and Deidara.)

Sasuke was ignoring the ramblings of the mad man, it was nothing more than the constant droning sound in his ears.

Considering he spent his academy days around his fan-girls and Naruto, then his Genin days around a single fan-girl and Naruto... then Orochimaru, who went on and on about his experiments he was doing, his plans, and Sasuke’s body, he was quite used to this.

Sometimes, the Uchiha thought that only reason he exists is because someone really love to torment him up there.

“Now, observe, as we both become the very pinnacle of the art!” Deidara concluded his speech.

“Hold it!” a sudden command came from somewhere.

Before Deidara could explode himself, someone appeared in the vortex of flames, and told him to stop.

The mad bomber was really annoyed. Couldn’t that person see that he was in the middle of something?

Said person stepped out of the flames, and Sasuke recognized him. It was of course, Naruto.

‘What is he doing here?’ Sasuke thought.

“Now, I really don’t care whether you get your amusement from exploding yourself, after all, everyone has their fetishes. But if you are going to involve my enemies... then we will have trouble.”

“What are you talking about Uzomaki?” Deidara screamed, “Everything within the ten kilometers will be destroyed, you won’t survive!”

“Contrary to your thinking, I will. And I will also take Sasuke with me.” The demon answered with his usual unflappable tone.

“What?” Sasuke said in confusion, didn’t he got any say in this?

Deidara just sneered.

Despite not showing, fighting with Deidara did exhausted Sasuke. Thus, when Naruto tried to grab him, he wasn’t able to dodge.

“Byeeeee!” Naruto said, and teleported in the flames again, exactly the way he appeared.

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Deidara gave a wordless scream of rage.

* * *

(With Sasuke and Naruto, twenty kilometers away.)

“Damn you Uzomaki!” impressively for Deidara, before his explosion he said those words with such a loud voice that Naruto heard it, even when he was twenty kilometers away.

“Deidara hu Akbar!”

Boooooooooooooooom!

It was exactly as the mad bomber described, everything within ten kilometers was destroyed, and even when the demon teleported extra ten kilometers away, the shockwave of the explosion was enough to make him stumble.

Sasuke however, was not in best shape. Thus, as soon as they were out of the teleportation, he fell down face first.

“Ouch. Not at your best, are you?” Naruto couldn’t help but taunt the Uchiha.

“I am more worried about that group you’ve just angered.” Yamato was showing some concern.

“Ah, don’t worry. They won’t cause much trouble, according to the demon news, they are really not much active these days.” Naruto answered to the concerned Yamato, not at all worried.

“Still…”

“Don’t worry about it, Yamato.”

“Fine. But how exactly are you going to track Itachi? You never told me.” Since the demon didn’t care for it, best to drop the topic now, were the thoughts of Yamato.

“Ah, for that, our nice friend Uchiha will help us.”

Sasuke just knew whatever help the demon wanted from him, was not going to be good. More specifically, not good for him.

“How exactly?”

“Get away from Sasuke!” a girlish voice screamed out of nowhere, and tried to tackle the demon.

Naruto, out of surprise, fell on his usual reaction of surprise attacks. He punched the said girl.

“Karin, try to heal him. We’ll try to hold him off.” A boy with a large sword said to the girl.

Said large sword was very familiar to Naruto.

“How exactly did you acquired that sword?” the demon asked curiously.

Instead of receiving the answer to his question, Naruto was attacked.

Some people are impolite like that.

Yamato appeared on the demon’s hand, and he batted aside Suigetsu’s attack with ease.

“Honestly, the previous owner of this sword was much better at handling it.” after all, he had seen the skill of its previous wielder on battle.

Suigetsu snarled at the insult, and he started to attack the demon again. But this time, there was another person who attacked Naruto.

“Hahahahahaha! I am going to kill you!” the tall boy said, madness coloring his voice.

His hands transformed into the canons, and he started to fire blasts at Naruto. Naruto just teleported. After all, no need to take those attacks to show off, when there wasn’t a purpose.

Instead, he came out of his teleportation, and punched the berserk boy with a fist surrounded with flames.

“Ah, it is good to be using fire punch again.”

In his berserk rage, Jugo didn’t anticipate where would the demon appear next when Naruto teleported. But as soon as he saw the light of flames behind his back, he tried to turn around as fast as he could, but he failed.

He got punched directly. The hit was so hard that he flew for several second in the air, and after a while his burning body hit the ground.

Suigetsu watched the entire thing with an open-mouthed shock. As long as he knew the guy, Jugo did not sound like he would be taken out easily by anyone. Yet, here he was, seeing his body burning right on front of him.

Taking advantage of his shock, Naruto teleported again behind Suigetsu, and started to pummel the boy without any restraint.

It should be noted that anyone who received such a beating would be bloody and broken on the ground. Yet to Naruto’s surprise, nothing of the sort happened. True, Suigetsu was on the ground, but he was not bleeding blood, instead from his wounds was leaking water.

Also, he was not in any particular discomfort either.

Naruto just watched him curiously, as he recovered and stood up, and hoisted the executioner’s blade in his hand again.

“Surprised? This is my clan’s specialty. No matter what you do to me, I will never bleed, never get injured, and will always stand up!”

“Interesting. Yamato, I haven’t tried the lightning techniques yet, have I?” Naruto asked, with few sparks flickering on his empty hand.

“No, you haven’t.” was the prompt answer of the sword.

Suigetsu’s eyes started to twitch in annoyance. as soon as he got the upper hand, this happened. At this rate, the idea to follow Uchiha was not looking so good.

Of course, Suigetsu was well aware of the weakness of the bloodline of his clan, this was the reason why they all avoided the conflicts with the lightning country in the past, or any known Shinobi who is known to have lightning affinity.

But what he heard from Sasuke about this Naruto, it never sounded like he had any sort of lightning ability, let alone any elemental knowledge. Yet, here he was, casually letting off the sparks from his left hand, having holding his sword in his right one.

Also, what was with that sword? He had heard it talking more than once. The only sentient weapon he ever knew was Samehata. And that sword was not known for talking.

Still, he can’t let his opponent know that he was getting nervous by seeing those sparks. So, he continued with his banter.

“Yeah, not only that, I will collect all the seven swords of the mist, and unite them under myself!” Suigetsu stated confidently.

“Yeah, you see, there might be a problem with that.” The demon said.

“What?”

“You see, when I asked Kisame to die, he refused, consequently his sword was also resisting. So, that sword decided to absorb my demon juices. and when it couldn’t handle that, the sword melted in to the puddle of liquid.” Some guilt can be heard in the voice of Naruto, as if he really felt bad for destroying this boy’s dream.

First as Naruto was telling his story, Suigetsu had an expression of amusement. But as the story continued, it shifted to bafflement, then to understanding, and finally to rage.

“You.”

“What?” Naruto asked.

“You!”

“What, what?” the demon continued to ask.

“You destroyed my dream!” Suigetsu snarled.

“Oh.” Before, there was only some guilt on the voice. But now, there was honest recognition.

“I am going to kill you, you here that?” the grieved party said furiously.

“Loud and clear.” The demon said, back to his relaxed manner.

After some hand signs, massive amount of water came out of Suigetsu’s hole body, and he tried to drown the demon in it.

At first, he thought he was successful in doing so. But some ripples were forming at the pool of water, out of which came out the demon.

“You really want to play that game? Fine. Water pulse!” a large sphere of water formed in Naruto’s hand, and he throws that sphere at Suigetsu.

The sphere exploded with a massive blast of water, carrying the Ninja some distance with its force.

Despite the explosion though, Suigetsu was not harmed much.

Watching the massive lake of water however brought a smile on his face.

“Do you know what you have done?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

“You have given me such a massive advantage.” He said, while pointing at the lake of water which was formed recently.

“Oh that, it is not going to last long.”

Suigetsu looked at Naruto as if he was insane.

“Let me prove that.”

‘Try to use more lightning techniques. I am sure you will get used to it with repeated use.’ Yamato advised mentally.

Naruto didn’t have any sign that he heard Yamato, but teleported in the sparks of lightning, instead of flames which he was using so far.

Suigetsu’s eyes twitched. ‘I was hoping that he was worse than that using lightning.’

“Hm, how do you do this, oh yeah!” Naruto remembered, and he extended his left hand and a bolt of lightning came out of his palm.

Zap!

“Miss me.” Suigetsu taunted.

More lightning bolts came at Suigetsu, but so far, he managed to dodge all of them. though they were getting too close for his comfort, and he was not getting any chances to retaliate. He was still managing to dodge those bolts, while absorbing the water of the lake, which presumably would give him some sort of advantage.

Until he slipped once. Only, the demon he was standing up against needed only one chance.

Zap!

“Yeeooo!”

Naruto snickered at the strange scream of the teen, while observing his paralyzed form.

“Awesome.”

“Get to it already, that girl is starting to crawl.” Yamato said impatiently.

“Well,” Naruto grinned nastily as his fist was surrounded by electricity.

“This is going to be fun. Thunder punch!”

Bam!

Naruto connected with the sparkling fist right on the paralyzed Suigetsu’s face, which turned his body in to some sort of jelly like substance.

“Disgusting.” Yamato commented.

“True. Here’s how you take out the trash like this.” A fireball came and exploded over the said trash, turning the unconscious Suigetsu in to vaper.

“Now, to take care of that girl…”

“You know,” Yamato spoke to Naruto as he made his way back to Sasuke from the impromptu lake, “You could have just vaporized him. Your fire element is strong enough for doing that.”

“True, but then I wouldn’t have a chance to use the lightning on an opponent against whom I don’t have to worry about. It is always good to practice in a safe environment, Yamato.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

Meanwhile, miraculously Karin finally reached Sasuke. Instead of healing herself first, she decided that Sasuke needed her help more.

Wasn’t she a selfless girl?

Of course, holding this over Sasuke’s head for years to come and make him obey her every demand was also in the agenda.

“S-Sasuke, here.” She said, while putting her forearm around his lips, “bite my arm—“

Stab!

She did not have a chance to finish her sentence, as Yamato was thrown by Naruto right on her upper back.

“You should have understood from that punch alone that you are way out of your league, girl.”

Naruto grabbed Sasuke and lifted him again, and teleported to another location. After all, who knew whether the Uchiha have more friends or not? Better to leave now.

In the flames, they appeared at the outskirts of a forest with large trees, and a mountain looming over it.

Sasuke fell down again, and cursed.

“Hm, you really have a bad luck with this, don’t you?”

More cursing.

“Naruto, how exactly are you going to track Itachi? You never answered me.” Yamato asked, while Sasuke’s cursing continued in the background.

“Oh, simple really, I will get some of his blood, put it on a circle which I will prepare on a hard surface, and put the blood on the said circle. Voila! I will have a communication portal opened to Itachi’s location, wherever he maybe.”

“Yeah, you could have done that at the previous place, couldn’t you?” Yamato asked, while Naruto approached and started to draw the circle with a knife which was enforced through several seals.

“Oh yeah, but I did not want to destroy the lake which I formed by my own attack.” He answered distractedly, while the sound of continuous scrapping of the knife against the rock was heard.

“Err, Naruto, Sasuke is getting away.”

“Oh, for the love of… you know what, fuck that.” The demon said, annoyed.

Naruto pointed his index finger towards the fleeting Uchiha, and started to chant.

“Bakudo number 61: rikujokoro!”

Six thin beams of light came out of Naruto’s finger, and slammed in to the Sasuke. He was immediately paralyzed, despite the beams only striking at his mid-section, he couldn’t move his body.

“Now to continue the work I was doing…” Naruto didn’t even care for how hard Sasuke hit the ground.

Sasuke was terrified. This has been a long time that he was this helpless against someone.

At first, he thought that whatever Naruto did, he wouldn’t match up to him. Not because of his clan, (as much as people think about him, he wasn’t the opinion of superior breeding.) but more because of the skill difference between them.

After all, Naruto did start to catch up to him when they were teammates. But now? After three years of constant training under people like Orochimaru and Kabuto, (people without whom, the world could do better Sasuke feels.)

The last time he was in such a state of helplessness was when Itachi decided to torture him. His first exposure to someone like Zabuza came to a third place, while the killing intent of Orochimaru back in the forest of death comes second.

He felt that it was unfair. He did the three years of back breaking training, while Naruto gets to goof off with the other Sannin. He knew that Jiraiya took Naruto with him on a training trip, after all, Orochimaru always informed Sasuke about the activities of leaf, just so he could watch his reaction.

Sometimes, he takes the mad scientist character too far.

Sasuke naturally, did not gave any reaction, causing Orochimaru to leave him alone. Still, he did try to get some reaction time after time.

Back to the unfairness, while he did the back-breaking training, while enduring the creeps like Orochimaru and Kabuto... let’s just put the entire Sound village there as well, Naruto still turned out to be stronger than him.

So, he waited while thinking these things, waiting for a slightest mistake of his opponent which would give him a chance to either kill him or just strike and run.

Of course, why exactly did he killed the leader of his own squad, or why did he turn traitor to the village he was so loyal to, none of this crossed his mind. Sasuke did not saw much value in the Leaf village.

The sound of knife continues, which was taking too long in Yamato’s opinion.

‘Never thought that he would be able to use a demon binding spell so early.’

Most likely, Naruto got the information about the spell from the memories of the Chakra abomination.

Still, his knowledge of the demon strategies is incomplete. ‘I should train him properly, once he has enough time of course. He also needs to get his ego punctured a little…’

So, Yamato waited, and soon, his and Sasuke’s patience were rewarded. In Sasuke’s opinion, waiting for something to happen was more tense than its arrival.

Putting the knife back on his storage dimension, Naruto decided that it was the time to extract the blood of Uchiha.

So, he tried to find a needle which he was totally sure was present in his dimension. A lot of clanking and thumping sounds can be heard, as Naruto went up in the rip in the air up to his forearms.

“Forgot a needle?” Yamato asked, amused.

“I know it was somewhere here…”

“Don’t tell me that you are already suffering with the problems of old demons?” the sword took another dig at its wielder.

“Screw you, Yamato.”

Yamato just chuckled.

“Not there, not there either… found it!” the demon exclaimed to himself, while holding a large needle.

The needle was so big that only a mad scientist would try to use it to extract samples. Seeing Naruto approaching him with such a needle, caused Sasuke’s heart rate to rise dramatically. At this rate, he just might suffer a heart attack due to the sheer terror.

“Mister Uchiha, give me your blood, make it easy as possible, so I may find your brother and kill him…” Naruto sang in a terrible parody of the Sand Man.

“Not creepy at all.” Yamato commented sarcastically.

Surprisingly, Naruto turned out to have a really light hand on needle. Sasuke did not feel a slightest prickle aside from the twinge at the start.

Taking the needle carefully, Naruto took it to the circle in the bolder, and dripped it slowly. After all the blood was on the circle, Naruto started to focus his energy on the demonic seal to charge it.

* * *

(With Itachi Uchiha.)

Dew to his paranoia, Madara did not trusted Itachi. They both actually known each other before his joining of the Akatsuki. After all, he was the man who helped Itachi in massacring his own clan. He wouldn’t be able to do it more efficiently otherwise.

they did not meet again until the members of the Akatsuki started to die one after another.

So back to the trust issues, dew to his belief that someone like Itachi couldn’t be brought to his viewpoint, Madara planned to eliminate him as soon as the moon eye plan was about to be completed.

Madara also did not want Itachi to know more of his future plans. That is why he was keeping him busy. After the recent so-called mission by the ancient Uchiha, Itachi got back to the Land of rain...

To find the village absolutely devastated.

Fortunately, he found that the most of the civilian population, as well as the Shinobi were shifted somewhere else. But there were developments which concerned him greatly.

Mainly, one after another he found the corpses of the Akatsuki members, except for Konan.

After thinking about what, or who could have done something like that, one name jumped at the front of his mind unexpectedly.

“Naruto.”

Thus, Itachi decided to go back to the leaf, explain the situation to the Hokage, (Hopefully she won’t kill him,) and plan from there.

There were too many concerning reports coming about that boy. Usually, Itachi would disregard them. after all, he had seen the boy three years ago, when Kisame and him tried to take Naruto from the hotel in Tanzaku.

But they also ran into him two years ago. It wasn’t easy to fight against them back then. Itachi was quite surprised by the sudden change in a person so dramatically.

Thus, he was not able to disregard the intel on him, and now that he thought about it, his name suddenly coming up in his mind was not that surprising.

“Cough… cough… cough.”

Unfortunately, his illness, which he kept hidden from everyone decided to strike again.

He was forced to rest on a forest clearing.

‘I must reach the leaf soon…’ Was the only thought which was giving him enough strength to move.

Even more unfortunately, a certain demon has different plans. And he was not willing to deviate from them.

Just when he was starting to get enough willpower to move from the tree against which he was leaning, a strange thing happened right in front of him.

Right in front of Itachi, a rift opened in the air. The rift was not large enough for anyone to go through it, but it was large enough that Itachi could see across it.

What he saw, did not please him at all.

At first, he got the face of Naruto, sporting a grin which was very unsettling.

But then the demon decided to lift something from a little further up.

Itachi cursed. If his eyesight was good enough, he would have been able to see what exactly the boy was getting close to the rift.

“Man! Is it me? Or getting petrified like this makes you heavy.” Naruto said, while lifting whatever he was trying to take closer to the rift.

Itachi was not happy with what he saw.

For his comment, Sasuke gave Naruto a scathing glair. If he had Mangekyo Sharingan, Naruto would have been in flames by now.

“Let him go at once, Uzomaki.” Itachi stated, with an implied, ‘Or else.’

“Aww, don’t you want a family reunion?” the demon asked with a pout.

Sasuke’s glair intensified. But there were several thoughts going through his brain.

‘Why would Itachi ask to Naruto to let go of me?’ after all, if Itachi wished for Sasuke to suffer, he wouldn’t ask such a thing.

‘Doesn’t he consider me a weakling?’

“Stop your antics at once, Uzomaki.” Itachi said, with a threatening tone.

The demon gave a scathing look to Itachi.

“You aren’t my father.”

The older Uchiha sighed. “What do you want?”

“Judging by the seal I created, you are not far from my position. Come here, and your brother might just survive this.” Naruto told his demands.

“You won’t touch him.” Again, there was a touch of threat in Itachi’s voice.

“We’ll see about that.”

Itachi just hmphed.

“As soon as I let go of this rift, the coordinates of my location will appear in your mind, and you would be able to get here instinctually.”

Not waiting for the reply, the demon closed the rift.

Usually at this point, Itachi would experience an internal conflict. Go to the village? Or go and save Sasuke.

But he was very tired.

Tired of his illness, the games of the Shinobi, and doing the things for the village, which just demands more and more of him as the time goes by.

‘Screw that. If I survived the confrontation, then I will think about it. but Sasuke will be my priority.’

With that, he took off towards the location of Naruto.

* * *

(With Naruto and Sasuke.)

Naruto was waiting.

Waiting… waiting… waiting… yet more waiting… but there was no sign of Itachi.

“He better arrives soon, for your sake Sasuke.”

Sasuke didn’t answer.

Sasuke really did not have anything to say to Naruto, nor he wish to say anything.

Naruto was pacing restlessly, as if the wait was killing him.

‘Maybe I should have teleported to his location, and kill him, then I wouldn’t have to wait like this.’

“True. But then it wouldn’t be dramatic, now would it?”

‘Fuck dramatism.’

Before Yamato could say anything in reply, with a whoosh of air several shuriken came flying towards Naruto. Yamato appeared in his hand, and with multiple clang sounds he blocked them all.

“Really? attacking me like this, did you really thought it would be successful?” Naruto said with a sneer.

“I wouldn’t be a ninja if I didn’t take the chance.” A heavy voice replied.

Out of the trees, Itachi walked out, without any signs of his previous collapse dew to his illness.

Sasuke couldn’t believe it.

The man he wanted to kill practically for all of his life... was right in front of him, yet, yet he was helpless. He couldn’t even move a muscle, let alone fight and kill someone.

‘Fuck you Naruto. When I am out of here,’ this train of thought continued in his mind.

“You wanted me here, I am here. Let Sasuke go, now!” Itachi ordered.

“Tut, tut, tut, things don’t work like that in the real world, grow up already.”

Itachi frowned.

“Don’t give me that expression? You know what will happen once you arrive here.”

“You would try to kill me.” The older Uchiha said bluntly.

“True.”

“But Sasuke has nothing to do with it.” he tried to reason with Naruto.

“And that is where you are wrong. You see, he will remain petrified until we are done killing each other. I won’t let you escape you with your little brother.”

With a blurring speed, Itachi flipped through the hand signs ending up at the tiger.

(Contra soundtrack: waterfall.)

“Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!”

Naruto was rather surprised. He was expecting Itachi to reason with him some more, before declaring his intensions to fight.

But again, he behaved like a true Shinobi and took the demon by surprise.

Itachi tried to snuck closer to Sasuke, trying to take away his brother in the smoke of the fireball.

Meanwhile, Naruto just punched the fireball, without any damage to his hand.

Itachi was getting closer to Sasuke. He was feeling that he would be really successful in his plan. Unfortunately, the demon appeared right behind him.

“You know, I never understood the point of that technique.”

Itachi turned around, and tried to stab Naruto with a knife. The demon dodged the stab, and continued saying,

“I mean, what did exactly that technique ever accomplish?” Naruto said, while thinking his fire punch being best.

“Sounds like complaining to me.” Yamato said, while he was used to block the kunai strikes of Itachi.

“Okay, I hate the fireball. I mean what is it other than the most basic of fireball?”

“Is that so,” Itachi said, while flipping through more hand signs.

This time, there were more fireballs which were smaller, rather than the usual giant fireball.

Naruto tried to move away from them, but they were homing in on his location.

“Homing fireballs, now we are getting somewhere!” the demon said, some appreciation for the technique in his voice.

Itachi continued to get close to Sasuke slowly.

“Observe, my greater fire resistance!”

Naruto just punched and kicked the fireballs, though his leg and fists were also getting on fire before colliding with Itachi’s attack.

Itachi finally got close to Sasuke. Just when he was about to pick him up, (Ignoring the shocked eyes all the while,) the sounds of explosions behind him stopped, and Naruto appeared in front of Itachi, and kicked him on his face, sending Itachi flying.

“Aww. Look how much your brother cares about you?”

Sasuke glared at Naruto in fury.

“I mean if I had a brother like him, imagine how much my life would have improved. And look at you, trying to kill him all this time.” Naruto said as if Sasuke was an ungrateful child.

More glaring in fury by Sasuke.

“All this, while you don’t even know the truth, hahahahahaha!” Naruto couldn’t keep that patronizing tone and expression for long, and broke out in laughter.

“That is enough for now, Uzomaki.” Itachi said ominously.

“Oh? Who’s going to stop me, you?” Naruto said, while snickering.

“If I had to.” Itachi said as if the wait of the world was on his shoulders.

“Oh, get off that high horse of yours. Stay back, he needs to hear this.” Naruto wasn’t impressed.

Itachi moved, but Yamato appeared in Naruto’s hand and he put the sword at the neck of the younger Uchiha.

“Be careful now.” The demon spoke lightly.

Itachi stopped. But now he too was glaring at Naruto.

From the expression of Sasuke, he wanted to say something, but nothing was coming out of his mouth. It has been like this for a while now, his throat just refuses to work.

“What? Do you want to say something?” Naruto asked to the captive Uchiha.

Sasuke couldn’t say anything.

“Hurry up and spit it out, I don’t have the all day!” he said in an impatient voice.

“Err, Naruto, I think the muscles of his throat are locked.” Yamato informed his wielder.

“What?” Naruto was confused. After all, he remembered that he didn’t do anything which could do something like this to Sasuke.

“Apparently, your demon magic was too overpowered. Right now, the only thing he can do is breathe.” Control issues, ‘The need to train him properly has just shown itself.’ Yamato thought.

“Oh. What can I do to unlock his throat muscles? I really want to hear what he wishes to say.” Purely for his curiosity of course.

“Do this.” Yamato sent an image on Naruto’s mind.

Meanwhile, Itachi couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The sword in Naruto’s hands…

‘Could it be that he found that cursed weapon?’ he thought.

Of course, he had seen the sword many times in Naruto’s hands. But he simply did not have a chance to observe it in peace. After all, trying to stare at your opponent’s weapon while dumbstruck is a quick way to get killed.

still, Naruto having such a weapon was worrying to Itachi.

‘Since it can talk, there wasn’t any reason to assume that it couldn’t communicate with him mentally. I need to be careful; he literally has another mind working with him.’ Itachi quickly deduced the advantages of such a weapon.

Naruto started to perform the procedure which Yamato send to his mind. He made a slashing motion with his index finger right above Sasuke’s throat, and with a gasp, Sasuke took a deep breath.

After taking the breath, Sasuke spoke to Naruto.

“What were you talking about?”

“What?”

“the truth which you were speaking, what is it.” he asked impatiently.

As soon as Sasuke started to talk, Itachi’s face started to show the signs of worry.

“Oh that. Nothing much, you see, your clan in their idiocy decided to rebel against the village.” Naruto went on as if he was talking about school children who thought they can take over the school.

Itachi’s eyes morphed in to the Mangekyo, and from his left eye came black flames right at Naruto.

“Yiiikes!” with a yelp, Naruto have to dodge in a hurry.

Naruto disappeared as if he was allergic to those flames. He might have a very high fire resistance, but he wasn’t an idiot. Those flames are enough to turn Naruto into ashes, even if they touched him once.

Much to Itachi’s annoyance though, the demon also took Sasuke with him.

Once Naruto was safe, Sasuke spoke again.

“Naruto, continue.” Sasuke said imperiously.

Even if he was captive, the bastard, in Naruto’s opinion, didn’t lost any of his arrogance.

“Okay. The village found out about the rebellion, and after the negotiations broke down, the elders of the village council decided in their infinite wisdom that it would be a great idea to slaughter the entire clan. Without telling Hokage no less!” Naruto said, while keeping an eye on the movements of Itachi, who was slowly getting closer to his location again.

“What?” Sasuke said, with a thundering voice.

“Oh yeah. I found about this after sneaking into some secret places. Your brother has to do a lot of begging and scraping to keep you safe, since he couldn’t bring himself to kill you. While of course his mercies did not extend to the other children of the clan oh heeeeelllllll!”

Naruto didn’t realize when Itachi got close to him, and used the black flames again. Itachi was furious. He couldn’t believe that the secret will be outed in such a fashion. What increased his fury however, was the fact that the demon took Sasuke with him again.

After escaping from the flames, Naruto once again paralyzed Sasuke’s throat preventing him from speaking again.

He put the younger Uchiha beneath a tree at the edge of the forest, and took off to somewhere else, to make sure that Itachi did not find him.

As soon as he saw Naruto, Itachi attacked him again. But this time, he didn’t use the Amaterasu. Rather he just attacked him with more flying Kunai and Shuriken.

“That secret was not for you to tell!”

It was the sign of Itachi’s fury that his voice which was usually kept in control, and its usual drawl by him, rose higher.

“Oh yeah? He would have found out sooner or later. What then?” Naruto asked.

“Still, it wasn’t your secret to tell.” Itachi repeated the point.

“Now you are starting to sound like a broken record.”

Meanwhile, beneath the tree, Sasuke was so furious that he was vibrating.

‘Those lying, sanctimonious, righteous Basterds!’

Meanwhile the fight between Naruto and Itachi was increasing in intensity.

Naruto appeared from behind Itachi, trying to ram Yamato through his spine. Itachi turned around, and blocked it with a clang sound through a Kunai.

“What? No more broken records to sing?” the demon asked sarcastically, while snickering.

“I am not inclined to have a conversation to the people who are trying to kill me.” He was also fed up with the antics of Naruto.

“Kill you? We both know this is not enough to kill any of us. At best, some indigestion, but most certainly not kill.”

Itachi really wanted to use Tsukuyomi on Naruto. But he learnt from his previous encounter with him, it simply did not work on him. His mind was too strong.

He remembered that incident again.

The incident took place between the three years gap. One day, Kisame and Itachi accidentally found the Jinchuriki. Itachi decided to take Naruto by surprise. But Naruto throws off the Tsukuyomi, causing the backlash which increased Itachi’s blindness.

At that day, Kisame and Itachi barely escaped Naruto.

So, Tsukuyomi was out of the question. So Itachi thought what else he could use.

Just few moments later, he decided to use Susanoo. After all, there was not a chance that Naruto would know about it. besides, his Susanoo have an ability which could definitely take care of the demon.

Getting away from Naruto, both of Itachi’s eyes started to spin faster, and an ethereal armor appeared around him. It was a very scary site, with Itachi’s bleeding eyes, and the roaring armor. At first, the armor was just looking like a skeleton. But slowly, it transformed in to a humanoid form.

In an ideal situation, Itachi would never have used Susanoo on its humanoid form, that form takes just too much Chakra. But against Naruto, he wasn’t taking any chances.

“I call bullshit. How can your eyes give you armor on demand? That’s just unfair!” the demon hollered at the top of his lungs.

Naruto tried to slash at Susanoo with Yamato, but Itachi blocked it with a blade looking like a tanto from Susanoo’s secondary arm. Trying to take advantage, Itachi unsheathed another sword from the jar from the Susanoo’s left hand, and slashed at Naruto.

“Naruto, dodge!” Yamato warned frantically.

Yamato’s warning came in time. Naruto backflipped away from Itachi, and the strike missed him by few inches.

“Do you recognize that sword?” Yamato asked, with none of his playfulness present.

“Yes.” Naruto said, with a serious tone.

“So, you do no the sword of Titsuka. Take a long look demon, this weapon will be end of you.”

‘It would appear that armor also gives upgrade in dramatic dialogs.’ Naruto thought in his head.

“Never.” Was the simple answer.

Not wanting to get close to the Uchiha with such a dangerous weapon, Naruto prepared a fire blast. But a mirror appeared in one of the hands of Susanoo, and it deflected the blast back. The blast exploded at the right side of Naruto.

Seeing that the fire didn’t do anything, Naruto decided to use water pulse. The sphere of water was also deflected, and exploded in the shower of water at the left of the demon.

At this point, Naruto was standing at the middle of a small lake at his left, while flames raged around at his right side.

The demon contemplates his next move, while Itachi started to walk closer to him.

Changing Yamato from his right hand to left, Naruto’s right hand started to emit sparks of electricity.

‘Are you sure you want to use lightning? You still have not gotten used to it yet.’ Yamato asked mentally.

‘Don’t have much of a choice.’ Naruto replied.

Yellow sparks appeared in Naruto’s palm, with a crackle, Naruto fired a Thunderbolt at Itachi.

Once again, the mirror deflected the attack, but this time the attack struck Naruto.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!”

The attack sent the demon flying right at the small lake which was created by his own attack. When he fell on water, the electric shock was intensified.

With a burst of water, Naruto got out of the lake, furious that his own attack struck him.

He hasn’t suffered the humiliation like this for a long while now. So long that he forgot the feeling.

The demon got out of the lake, with few more sparks here and there on his body.

Itachi so far didn’t attack Naruto after activating Susanoo. So, it came as a surprise to the demon when the Uchiha made a sudden offensive move.

Objects weaved through a thread which have two or three of them came suddenly spinning at Naruto. The demon just swiped them from the air with his sword. the magatama exploded left and right of Naruto.

Seeing that his attack was rather unsuccessful, Itachi used a different strategy.

Naruto was ready for Itachi’s next attack. But this time, more magatama came at him.

He scoffed at the predictable repeated use of the same attack, until he saw flames on the spinning object.

More specifically, the black flames of Amaterasu.

Rather than put Yamato through the hellish flames, Naruto used an illusion, which took the brunt of the attack. By the time Itachi realized that he killed only an illusion, the entire area was covered with raging black flames.

Itachi turned around, to see the demon forming a beam on his palms.

Though Itachi couldn’t see it, but Naruto’s eyes were glowing orange under his sunglasses, (Which were still unblemished even after he was tossed around.)

“Hyper Beam!” Naruto said with a snarl.

It was annoying to Naruto. He couldn’t get closer to Itachi unless he wishes to get sealed by the sword of Titsuka, even though he had confidence on his sword skills, he still did not want to take any chances. Because just one cut or slash, and Naruto’s and Yamato’s fates will be sealed, figuratively and literally.

His elemental attacks were getting blocked by that mirror shield, while his non elemental attack like the Death Beam were not strong enough to get through Susanoo. Yet he was confined to use the ranged attacks because of the sealing power of sword of Titsuka.

From what he got from Kurama’s memories, (as well as the fox’s real name,) the Hyper Beam was not any sort of elemental attack. It should be able to work against the mirror.

Naruto cursed. If he was good at earth manipulation, he could have attacked Itachi from below. But his practice with that element was nonexistent.

The beam which also was colored orange, collided with the mirror. As Naruto predicted, it was not able to block the Hyper Beam, due to its non-elemental properties. The mirror exploded in to the light which had the same color as Itachi’s Susanoo.

The mirror reformed back in in the palm of Susanoo.

“Found it.” Naruto said, happy to have a weakness which he could exploit.

Now, Itachi was getting worried. So, this time, rather than just throwing few of the Magatama after Naruto, his Susanoo weaved an entire chain of them. of course, they were covered in flames of Amaterasu.

“Err. You are not going to throw those at me, aren’t you?” he asked with a tremulous voice.

Itachi released the chain of Magatama.

Naruto ran. “Shiiiit! Itachi you bastard!”

Itachi was standing, trying to find the chance to get to the demon and use his sword on him.

After all, he does not have to fight on a complicated sword fight with him, just one cut, stab, or a slash will be enough to seal him.

Naruto was getting worried. Those Magatamas were getting too close for comfort. The entire area was soon catching the black flames of Amaterasu. They were fighting on the edge of the forest, that was the only reason why Naruto didn’t get burned yet.

“Itachi, the environmentalists are gonna get you, you bastard!” the demon screamed, as he saw some of the trees finally catching fire.

He discretely checked the position of Sasuke. Thankfully, the area around him was devoid of flames. If need be, Naruto could use the younger Uchiha as a shield.

But Yamato had other ideas.

“Naruto, use me to swipe them aside!”

“Are you insane? These flames will melt you.” As much as Yamato annoys him, Naruto would not want to put him through such an experience.

“They can’t. it would be painful though…” Yamato said, “But still better than getting sealed again!” he can take the pain when faced with such an alternative.

Taking the chance at the incoming Magatama, Naruto used Yamato to swipe it from the air.

Yamato gritted his teeth.

More Magatama came at the demon, which he sent on different areas by swiping at them by his demon forged weapon. One of the Magatama landed on the lake which was created by the water pulse.

“There goes my lake,” the demon said, as the Magatama exploded and the Amaterasu started to vaporize the water.

Then, Naruto had an idea. Why not take advantage of the smoke and vaper? He disappeared amongst the explosion and flames from Itachi’s sight.

Itachi was immediately on his guard. Who knew where would the demon attack from next? His strained eyes were not making the situation any better.

“Hyper Beam!” the voice came from behind Itachi.

Sadly, for him, Itachi was not fast enough to turn around in time, and Susanoo bore the brunt of the attack. Soon, the armor started to crack, and just like that disappeared.

Though Itachi did not receive any damage from the beam itself, since the attack sputtered out by the time Susanoo disappeared, but still, he was sent flying from the remaining force of the attack.

(End soundtrack.)

Strange chance of the fate, perhaps. But he landed right next to paralyzed Sasuke.

Sasuke was still in disbelief dew to the day’s events. And now, he had Itachi so close to him. He wanted to say so many things, ask questions, maybe wale on him a little.

But he wouldn’t get to do any of that, since Naruto walked in from the flaming area.

“Now, where exactly could he have disappeared in such a short time?” he was muttering.

“Maybe he died?” Yamato said hopefully.

“No. he won’t die so simply. After all, he has a purpose, people like that do not die so easily.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I am just like him… oh, there he is.”

(Naruto Shippuden soundtrack: Senya.)

Coughing, Itachi said to the demon, “You are nothing like me.”

“Not in the sense you are thinking. But in the sense that I will go to any length to keep my freedom.”

Itachi glared. “The kind of freedom, which does not seek to establish peace in the world… is useless.”

“What peace? Tell me. Since you were a kid, did you ever experienced the peace which you seek? The kind of peace which you want… can only be achieved in death.”

The combination of desperation, rage, and perhaps feeling that it would be his last chance allowed Itachi to activate his Susanoo again. He lunged at the demon with the sword of Titsuka, but this time, Naruto blocked the strike with Yamato.

Though if the sword would have been able to damage the demon weapon, Yamato could also have gotten sealed. After all, inside the sword was living a soul. But since the sword did not take any damage, nothing of the sort happened.

Itachi tried to force his sword through Naruto’s guard, but it was a futile effort. He was too exhausted. Not to mention, his illness sapped his remaining strength.

With a cough, Susanoo sputtered, while Naruto’s sword got through Itachi’s chest with a squelch sound.

“Phew. No more getting sealed.” The demon commented with some relief.

Naruto flicked the body aside. “A moment of silence for Itachi Uchiha… the moment is over.” The demon went to the body, and slipped the ring away from Itachi’s finger.

Once more, the ring appeared on Naruto’s index finger, showing the kanji of eight, after combining the ring which he acquired from Itachi, it showed the sign of nine.

“You know, if you weren’t important for my purpose,” the demon said looking at the ring on his finger, “I would have melted you in a heartbeat.”

With a ball of energy, he vaporized the body. All the while, Sasuke saw such a casual destruction of his brother’s body.

“That takes care of the eye thieves.”

(End soundtrack.)

Naruto went to the Sasuke, and unlocked his throat muscles. “Let’s see what you have to say about my performance.”

“You bastard, I will kill you!” were the words he spoke as soon as he could speak again.

“Yeah, no. you will die by my hands.”

As soon as Naruto tried to snap Sasuke’s neck, out of nowhere, he was struck by a lightning bolt.

“Heeeeeelllllll!” he cursed as he suffered second shock of the day.

Sparking, he asked, “What was that?”

Then a memory triggered.

* * *

(Flashback, because I am such an amateur writer.)

Before they can go to retrieve Sasuke, Sakura came crying to Naruto.

Of course, considering what a good guy he was, he promised her that he will get the jerk back.

‘Not in one piece, however. You should be more specific.’ He smirked…

That smirk was unseen by Sakura.

* * *

(End flashback.)

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

As he was done remembering, Naruto gave a primal scream of rage, causing the nearby birds to fly away which were starting to return dew to the lull in explosion, and amusing Yamato greatly.

This was all very hilarious to the sword. While Naruto made the promise as a human, but since those people took it seriously, it got stuck even when he became a demon.

‘Well, even with a lot of trouble, I still managed to kill that son of a bitch.’ At least he could take comfort in that.

‘Don’t kid yourself. The only reason why you even managed to survive is his illness. Otherwise, you and I both would have been sealed!’ Yamato said harshly.

Naruto was in shock.

Since obtaining Yamato, they never have any sort of disagreement. (Aside from few differences of opinion, which really do not count in the long term.) but this time, the demon weapon was angry at him.

This was again, a new experience for Naruto. Most of his life, people had been angry at him regarding things of which he did not have any control over. But never someone has criticized him for his mistakes.

Other than mocking him of course. But this was not mocking. It was genuine concern.

‘Your streak of victories has nearly gotten into your head. It is time that you properly assess yourself.’ Yamato concluded his berating.

‘You know what? You are right. But I don’t even know where to start, it is not like I could find the demon knowledge lying around,’ Naruto commented sullenly.

‘Why do you look for something which you already have?’ Yamato said, exasperated.

‘What?’

‘I can train you just fine. Do you think that for all these years, I did not collected the knowledge and training methods for teaching my wielders? I would have given this knowledge to any of my passed wielders, if only they would have asked me.’

“Then let us start… but before that,”

Naruto knocked out Sasuke who was again vibrating from the fury which he was experiencing.

“Let me get rid of that promise which is stuck on me.”

“Great then. Where to now?” Yamato asked, back to his cheerful mood.

“You get to see my birthplace.”

* * *

(In the forests of Land of Fire.)

After receiving the news of the destruction of the Land of rain, Tsunade increased the patrols on the border.

She did not want any surviving Akatsuki Ninja, as well as any other sort of rogue Shinobi in her territory.

So, there they were, most of the Naruto’s graduation class, with few of them missing, notably team ten, along with Anko and Kakashi, patrolling on the border.

Kakashi was very amused at the complains of the Chunins. And lamented the fact that they did not trained them more seriously from the very beginning just because there weren’t any wars.

In hindsight, all the Jonin being the veterans of the third war, they should have seen this coming. But they didn’t. still, it did not stop the mask Ninja from smirking at the long patrolling hours.

The Jonin quickly snapped out of his rumination as he saw someone approaching right at their location, jumping from tree to tree.

“Be alert everyone, it is most likely an enemy Ninja.” He warned.

All five of the Chunin prepared themselves for capturing the incoming enemy, while Anko got ready to interrogate them. after all, that was the prime purpose she was sent with them. of course, that was the official reason.

Truth was, with the recent trouble Leaf’s forces were stretched thin. Between accomplishing missions, taking care of the threats, they needed to deploy Shinobi in the fields, which usually have nothing to do on the field.

As the enemy got closer, they heard some muttering., causing Kakashi to get on the guard. He thought that the Shinobi was preparing a technique, or some illusion.

But as they got closer, they all could hear clearly that it wasn’t any technique.

“And who the hell made the rules like that? I mean becoming a demon should be a clean slate, dammit!” Naruto muttered.

“When I find the asshole who made such rules, I will cut him slowly by Yamato!”

By this time, Naruto was in clear sight of the team. They also saw someone on his shoulder.

‘Perhaps someone injured?’ Kakashi thought, while thinking how great a hostage that person would make.

“Then once I am done pealing their skin, I will dump them in the salt water, let’s see how they like it—oh hay!” Naruto said, while stopping just in front of the Shinobi.

Everyone was staring at him with hostile intensions.

“Why so much hate? Let us embrace each other, and commence the era of peace!” considering the people he had met and killed recently, he couldn’t help but say that.

Silence was the only answer which the demon got, as well as the mental laughter of Yamato.

“Naruto Uzomaki, you are under arrest for the crimes against the Hidden leaf.” Kakashi announced.

“You are wrong.” The demon hoisted Sasuke up. “I am here to deliver this piece of trash to the Leaf village. And you will let me come with you.”

“Don’t you look around? You are so badly outnumbered.” Anko said, venom dripping from her voice.

She could not forget how she privately compared Naruto’s situation with herself, and how despite that, he continued to pursue his dream of becoming the Hokage of the village, and turning the hate of the people into the love and admiration for himself.

Instead, he went rogue, killed his team leader and Asuma, after whose death her friend Kuranai has not been same, and now has the gall to tell them that he would be going into the Leaf?

“Yeah? I single handedly destroyed the Land of Rain,” he had help in form of Killer B and Yamato, but they did not need to know that, “What makes you think you pose any sort of threat to me?”

“You’re lying!” everyone said at once, except Kakashi.

“Am I now, am I really?”

Slowly, the demon’s killing intent started to fill the area.

“You have two choices to make. First, you can take me to the Leaf peacefully, or second, I can slaughter every single one of you right now, and still continue on to the Leaf.” First Akatsuki, then Itachi. So many battles have exhausted the demon. Consequently, his patience was just as short.

“Yeah right. Like we would believe it.” Anko said, while giving the demon a furious glair.

“Fine. Then would you believe me that I killed Itachi Uchiha, and took his brother with me?”

More like Itachi got killed by his sickness, and he barely got away. Again, they did not need to know that.

“You—“ she wanted to say something, but Kakashi interrupted her.

“Anko, enough.”

“But Kakashi!”

“I am the team leader here,” the Jonin said frostily. “I have to think about the rest of the team as well.”

That quieted the snake mistress.

“Now, team eight, take the rear position. Sakura and Sai, you are in the middle with Anko. While Naruto and I will be on the front. Understood?”

“Understood.” They all said, some in obedience, some in grudging acceptance.

Thus, they all started to move towards the Hidden Leaf Village, while the entirety of team eight was glaring at the back of demon along with Anko, while Sakura and Sai did not react much to the surprise of Naruto.

As Kakashi ordered, both him and Naruto were at front. But suddenly, someone came at the left of Naruto.

“Excuse me, Uzomaki?”

Naruto looked at the voice.

It was Sai, the person brought in for replacing Sasuke. Naruto has been on one mission with him, the mission where he decided to strike on his own. But clearly, he had managed to establish himself somewhat, especially when both Kakashi and Sakura excepted his presence.

“Sai, was it?” the demon asked, with none of the hostility present in his voice.

the root agent nodded.

“What is it?”

“I wish to understand, why did you left your friends?” the teen explained.

At that question, Naruto almost fell off from the tree branch from where he was supposed to jump.

“Why do you want to know?” Naruto couldn’t think why would someone practically unknown to him would care about that.

“From what I have gathered, you were used to be very loyal to them, if not the village.” Sai presented the facts he knew clearly.

Even Kakashi wanted to know the answer of that question, thus the Jonin was shamelessly paying attention to their conversation, and wasn’t even bothering to hide that fact.

“Since you so honestly want to know, I will try to answer your question as best as possible.”

Sai gave another nod, happy that he might get some inkling of how emotional people function. To him, they were some different species, a curiosity.

“I did not decide to up one day, and say ‘Yeah! Let’s murder some people, and leave the Leaf.’ But after carefully weighing my options, which I am not about to tell you, I decided to leave.”

Sai started to frown in the effort to process the reply.

“You have to understand that I may have employed one of the most important skills of a Shinobi, pretending. I don’t know what the people thought, but there was not anything like friendship among us. And that includes all the people who graduated with me, not just team seven.”

“Yet, you are trying to bring Uchiha back to the Leaf.” Sai pointed out.

“Trust me, not because I want to.” Naruto said darkly.

When Sai realized that it was enough questions he had asked to the demon, he decided to leave as a gesture of politeness.

But, as soon as he left, someone else took his place.

‘What now?’ Naruto thought, while looking to his left again.

It was Sakura.

“What do you want, Sakura?” he asked frostily.

Kakashi noted how differently Naruto was treating two different people. 

“I…”

“Spit it out, already!” Naruto didn’t have the patience for this.

“I want the team seven back.” She said, with a strong as voice in as possible.

“Hmhmhmhmhmhmhmhm.” The demon chuckled. “You really live in a world of fantasy, don’t you?”

Her response was to glair at him.

“Or perhaps you are looking at the situation through the tinted glasses?”

More glaring.

“Fine. So, you want the team seven back, in which you will have a perpetually late Jonin, a broody boy over whom you can crush on, and your personal punching bag? How selfish of you. It’s all about you, isn’t it?”

“Since we were in one team at once, I will point out that you should really stop shrieking so much. Otherwise by the time you would get at the age of Kakashi, you would sound like an angry forty years old smoker.” 

She huffed and left.

The demon looked at Kakashi. “Please don’t tell me that there are more of them?”

“I really doubt it.” the Jonin answered, in his usual bored drawl.

One would think why exactly Kakashi was so easily conversing with someone who murdered his comrade?

Truth was, when peace treaties are signed, all the Shinobi who would have gutted each other have to act civilized. Since the third war ended, he had been on many situations like this.

Also, he was kind of feeling disillusioned by the life of the Shinobi.

After all, Kakashi has to work with the people who driven his father to suicide, he saw how easily the village excepted someone like Orochimaru back. While just few months ago, they would have been trying to kill him.

Often, he would sit alone in his apartment, (With all the traps set, he was one paranoid Jonin,) and would think was there any point of being a Shinobi?

After Naruto’s betrayal, these inspections of the life also increased.

* * *

(At the gate of Hidden leaf.)

As soon as the group entered in to the Leaf, they were surrounded by the ANBU.

Naruto throws the unconscious Sasuke on the ground, breaking away from the group in the process, and immediately pointed his index finger at the forehead of the truly last remaining Uchiha.

“Death Beam—yeo!”

Before the beam could even escape from his index finger, Naruto was covered in electricity again.

“What now!” the demon roared, not at all happy that he suffered the third shock of the day, not to mention in front of these people, no less!

Everyone took a step back. They did not want to get caught up in whatever the demon has managed to done to himself.

* * *

(Another flashback. Because your writer sucks!)

“I will explain everything Sensei,” a memory echoed in Naruto’s ears, the voice was very faint.

“Just wait a little.” The last line was sounding very sinister.

* * *

(End flashback.)

“What?”

“You owe him an explanation.” A voice came from the sky, making all the Shinobi present there jump in surprise.

Three seconds of silence.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” the demon screamed so loudly that several windows were broken nearby, and most of the windows in the village rattled.

Four old people suffered from heart attack that day.

“Excuse me please,” the demon said to the people who were surrounding him.

They did not try to hold him down as he approached the village gates once more. Naruto was clearly unstable, and there was no point in trying to draw him in a combat situation specially when the civilians were around.

the ANBU as well as quickly increasing group of Shinobi thought that Naruto will escape again. But rather than doing anything like that, he started to bash his head to the massive gates of the Leaf.

“Stupid! Demon! Rules!” when he was done bashing his head, he said, “I will shove Yamato up that person’s ass when I find who made such rules!”

There was a sudden scream of horror, causing the ninjas to check around who could it be.

“You won’t find the owner of that voice.” Orochimaru appeared.

“Orochimaru! Just the person I wanted to see.” The demon said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“You are under arrest, Uzomaki.”

The demon snickered. “Those words do not suit your lips.”

Still, he was bound in chains, and marched up to the highest security sell they have in the Hidden Leaf.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16.  
Prison days.

(With Naruto, at the village gates.)

After seeing his unstable behavior, no Shinobi was willing to arrest the demon. That is, until Orochimaru appeared.

After all, someone who was twisted as the snake Sannin could definitely contain the demon, right?

It also helped that the demon did not resisted in the slightest.

Bound in chains, Naruto was marched up to the highest security sell in the Leaf correctional facility. Almost all the elite Jonin were gathered at the facility to search Naruto. So, it was a surprise for the demon that Neji was present there. After all, he was recently promoted Jonin, among the elite forces no one would think about him.

either Naruto was wrong, that Neji has really accomplished so many tough missions that he deserved to be among the elite forces, in which case he must congratulate him,

Or Leaf was really stretched thin among all the problems they were dealing with.

Despite the presence of the elite Jonin, the job of searching Naruto was left to the ANBU which were employed at the most dangerous section of the correctional facility. After all, it was an almost routine job for them, so there was no need to interfere with them.

While searching, the ANBU found some money with the demon, a seal which was very complicated for them to understand, it was the thought of the people present there that it was the seal which Naruto used in his teleportation technique. Since the seal was so complicated, they left it for someone else to look at it, like Jiraiya perhaps?

They found another containment seal, which was rather simple, so they ruthlessly deconstructed it right then and there, in which they found more money, some clothes, and few odds and ends, and a map of the elemental nations.

No matter how hard they searched though, they couldn’t find the seal which contained Yamato. (Orochimaru informed them about that sword while they were marching the prisoner to the prison.)

Unknown to Orochimaru, Naruto did not kept Yamato and some of the most important stuff in just any seal on his body.

He created a dimensional space in which he kept the most important things to him. The seal for contacting that dimension was inside of his stomach.

Brutal and ruthless? Yes. But if it kept these morons from finding his important stuff, then no length was too far, and no measures were too much.

When no one was looking at him, he glared at Neji. As if he could return his stuff.

ever Since in his childhood, Naruto did not have much to own. unless it was not secondhand, or nearly falling apart, in other words useless.

Thus, even after establishing himself the secret owner of some small but profiting businesses, he did not enjoy losing his money or his stuff to the searching ANBU. Especially when these were the same people who would have happily and very gladly used him as a weapon and as a puppet.

Which was the reason why he was glaring at Neji. As if urging him to fill the role of secret ally immediately.

Neji shook his head, and moved his lips a little.

Even though several Jonin and ANBU were standing between them, talking about the measures of security they were going to take, the protocol which was needed to be established for accessing the prisoner, Naruto still managed to saw the Hyuga’s lips moving.

‘Later.’ Was the simple message.

* * *

(Later in the prison sell…)

Of course, since Naruto was in prison, it was natural that he would face the interrogation. Thus, the situation in which he finds himself in currently.

Slap!

“Now, what was that for?” he asked, not appreciating the method of interrogation.

“Why did you betray us?” Tsunade questioned him, being the person who slapped him.

“Betray? How the hell am I supposed to betray someone when they didn’t have my loyalty in the first place?” was the answer of demon.

“What?” the Hokage said in shock.

Meanwhile, despite feeling that he should have been more involved in this, but just couldn’t muster enough will in himself to do so, Kakashi was watching the proceedings. It also helped that the answers which Naruto was giving were very amusing to the Jonin.

“And what about the words you spoke?” Shizune asked, very angry on behalf of Tsunade.

But honestly, she shouldn’t be. After all, Tsunade was present there to express her anger. At least in Naruto’s opinion.

“What words?” Naruto asked in confusion. He didn’t remember any such words.

“The words you spoke when you came to retrieve us, with lord Jiraiya.” She clarified further.

“Hahahahahahahaha! You are still on about that? I just said and did all of that because it suited me. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides, I did not come to retrieve you. It was Jiraiya’s mission, not mine.” The demon couldn’t contain his laughter.

Slap!

“What did I do now?” Naruto asked with a swollen face.

“Be more respectful!” Sakura scolded.

“And why the hell I should listen to you?”

Slap!

This time, Sakura’s slap was so powerful that it shook the demon entirely. The only reason why he didn’t went flying was that he was chained to the chair on which he was sitting, and the chair was bolted to the floor.

Naruto spat some blood to the side.

“I swear. You people don’t even know how to do the interrogation. Why don’t you let the people like Ibiki do their jobs?” Naruto said, his face was very much disproportionate.

Sakura gritted her teeth, and slapped him again. This time on his other cheek.

“Fuuuuck!” the prisoner cursed, now having both sides of his face swollen.

“My slaps can hurt just as much as lady Tsunade.”

“Nothing different there. After all, even in the academy days, you liked to bully me. After all, isn’t that the reason why you want the team seven back?” not liking the way this interrogation was going so far, Naruto decided to troll Sakura.

Seeing her uncomfortable face, Naruto continued.

“To get your lovely Sasuke back, who would constantly berate you, ignore you, and your personal punching bag so you can take your anger out on him, isn’t it?” Naruto said with a smirk.

Sakura started to shake in rage.

Meanwhile, Ibiki and Orochimaru along with ANBU were observing the events in that room from outside.

Seeing how much of an effect Naruto was having on them, (Excluding Kakashi, who was just standing to the side,) Orochimaru decided that it was the time to interfere.

The only reason why Ibiki even allowed these people to perform the interrogation was because the authority of Hokage. It clearly was obvious that just because you were Hokage does not mean that you can get information out from people.

“Enough.” Orochimaru said, while entering into the cell of Naruto, “You won’t get anything out of him.”

“Say,” the demon spoke then, putting all the people there on guard, “Won’t I get a trial?”

“If you were an ANBU, or an enemy shinobi, we simply would have made you disappear. But since you are a very well-known former Leaf shinobi, you will get a trial.” Orochimaru, being the most clear-headed person in that room currently except for Kakashi, who was not inclined to answer anyway, explained to Naruto.

“Hmmm. Make it a public one then.”

“What?” all of them said in shock, even Kakashi.

“You heard me. You want answers? I will give you in that trial. Just make it a public one.”

They all just turned around, Kakashi pushed himself off from the wall against which he was leaning and watching, and they all went outside.

* * *

(In the Hokage’s office.)

At first, there were too many people in the office. Almost all the Jonin who were present outside of the prison sell decided to come and pitch their ideas.

Strangely, the torture and interrogation division were quiet.

“Silence!” Tsunade bellowed.

All the clamoring was immediately quietened down.

“Ibiki, what do you think?” she asked the scarred Jonin briskly.

“Give me some time with him. He is a stubborn one, he won’t break so easily.” Was the verdict of the Jonin.

“Fine. Go and do whatever you can to open him about his secrets. It will make easier for us to control him later anyway. Dismiss.” Tsunade gave her orders.

“Understood.” The scarred Jonin nodded, and left.

The clamoring began almost immediately again. There were too many cries for justice, too many ideas what to do, what not to do, and just as many people were shooting each other’s ideas.

“SILENCE!” the entire tower shook with the force of her voice.

“All of you. Leave if you don’t have any other ideas. My teammates and I will find a way.”

Not wanting to get on her bad side and invoke her wrath, all the Jonin left.

“Who the hell made them Jonin? I remember during the third war; the discipline was not this bad.” She questioned no one in particular.

“You will notice that all the instructors of his class are missing.” Orochimaru said,

“Of course, they are not here. They have more common sense than them.” Jiraiya said, everyone knowing who exactly “Them” were.

Tsunade sighed.

“Do you think that we should fulfill his demand?”

“About the public trial?” Jiraiya asked, turning to Tsunade.

“Yes.” With a nod of her head, she confirmed.

“It could be risky. We still have not managed to find his helpers. For all we no, he is asking for the public trial because it will be the easiest time to escape. With some help of course!” Orochimaru was clearly not in the favor of that idea.

“But I think we should fulfill that demand.” Jiraiya said.

“Were you listening to a thing I just said!” Orochimaru said, while looking at Jiraiya as if he was an idiot.

“No need to sneer. Unlike you, I do not need to change bodies every three years, just to keep my hearing sharp.” Jiraiya said, not at all strange to these exchanges.

“Why you!” Orochimaru lost his cool.

“Easy you two. Jiraiya, continue.” Tsunade said, not liking how this bickering was reminding her of the past days.

“If we managed to convict him successfully, it will raise the morale of the Shinobi. Which, if you have noticed, is falling recently.” Jiraiya explained.

“Still. It is a bad Idea. We are literally inviting disaster.” The feeling Orochimaru was having regarding this line of action… was not good.

“I to, am in favor.” Tsunade said.

“What?” the snake Sannin couldn’t believe his ears.

“Jiraiya is right. Besides, our troubles won’t be over just like that. I suspect we are about to experience another war.” She said seriously.

There was a silence after the declaration.

“What about the Uchiha?” Jiraiya asked.

“He is recovering in the hospital. It was a good thing that Naruto undid whatever he did to him. His muscles were not in good condition. He was also suffering from Chakra exhaustion.” Tsunade gave the account of Sasuke’s health.

“Anyway, back to the topic, when should we conduct the trial?” she asked in return.

“Wait. Give me two or three days. Let me find whether there are more spies, or escape plans of Naruto or not. If I didn’t find anything, then we will go forward with the trial.” Jiraiya explained his plan.

“I would like to make it clear once more that it’s a bad idea.” Even with these precautions, Orochimaru was not in favor.

“Yes, I know. Welcome to the life of a true leader.” Tsunade couldn’t resist the jibe.

Orochimaru just grunted and left.

* * *

(With Neji.)

In a secret underground place, Neji was showing Kabuto the place of his new lab. Apparently, the lab was quite to the liking of the spy.

“Wow. Everything is organized so efficiently. Not to mention the data already present, is that a latest model of a computer?” Kabuto went on like a child.

Orochimaru did not use computers much. After all, his focus was the biology rather than technology. Still, Kabuto told Orochimaru even if he didn’t used the computer for technology research, he could still use it for organizing things, and get a guy who was interested in the technology to advance it.

Naturally, the snake Sannin refused.

But here, the laboratory was designed for him, not for Orochimaru.

“Glad you’ve liked it.” Neji said with a smirk.

“But of course! But, what about him? What about our fearless leader?” Kabuto asked, still excited.

“What about him?” Neji asked, very amused how dramatically Kabuto put it.

“Shouldn’t we make moves to get him out of the likely death sentence?”

“Don’t worry. He has a plan.” Neji said.

“Oh? Did he tell you?”

“No.” was the flat answer of Hyuga.

“Why?” Kabuto continues his questioning.

“Plausible deniability.”

“Ah, that could be one reason. Say, if I ask a personal question, would you mind?” Kabuto asked.

“Depends upon the question, really.”

“Hmm. You’re right. Why do you follow him so loyally?” this was the question which was bothering Kabuto for so long.

“You really think I would answer that?” Neji said, while giving Kabuto a look.

“No. but it was worth it to try.”

“I will tell you though, if someone offers you the chance to get out of a life which would have turned out to be a prison sentence for the crime of being born, you should take that person’s offer with both hands.”

“No doubt about it.” Kabuto agreed with this sentiment.

But disrupting their rather serious philosophical discussion, a high-pitched voice called.

“Neji! Neji!” Konohamaru came running and calling.

Kabuto was surprised to see the grandchild of the third in such a place.

“What is it?”

“Huff… huff… your cousin is trying to find you, you must go to the compound, immediately.” The boy said quickly.

Neji cursed. “What does that bitch want now?”

“Who knows? I am more surprised to see him here.” Kabuto said, while pointing to Konohamaru.

“He has his own reasons.”

“Of course.” Kabuto nodded.

“Now, if you don’t mind us leaving?”

“nope, no problem.” Kabuto said, while already lost on a book which he grabbed from several books from the lab.

Konohamaru, not wanting to stay in the presence of Orochimaru’s assistant, (or is its former assistant now?) anymore he has to. So as soon as Neji started to leave, he went along with him. When they arrived in the upper leaf village, they both seamlessly split up with each other, and went on their separate ways.

Neji arrived to the Hyuga compound. But before he could even go to his quarters, Hinata found him, and was blocking his way.

“Neji.” She said, “I need your assistance.”

Since her position changed in clan, Hinata stopped calling Neji brother, as she used to.

Also, as soon as she beat Hiashi in the dual for the position of the clan head, she branded him with a caged bird seal. Not stopping just there, she branded Hanabi with a same seal as well. Ever since then, the Hyuga clan has been controlled through an iron fist by her.

“In what manner?” Neji asked, happy that she didn’t asked where he was or what he was doing.

“I wish to get access to the prisoner.” There was no doubt about which prisoner she was talking about.

‘Guess you were right Naruto. People show their real side when backed in to the corner. But I have to wonder, just how much of a foundation she built on you, that just one rejection was enough to collapse her so badly?’

“Why aren’t you answering me? Can you do it or not.” Hinata asked impatiently.

“I can do it. but it might take some time. Because even if I had managed to climb the Jonin ladder enough that I was present during his searching, but I still am not trusted as much yet.”

“Well, as soon as they realize that it’s me who is trying to get access to him, I am sure you won’t have a trouble.”

“Actually, why don’t you come along with me? It would be the easiest that way.” In his mind, he congratulated himself for such a wonderful idea.

After all, if anyone questioned them, he would just say that he was following the orders of the head of his clan, as well as a council member.

“Perhaps. But don’t get used to this.” Hinata said, not at all impressed.

‘Of course not, you bitch.’ Neji thought in his head, but didn’t let show any of it on his face.

Apparently, for the beating he gave her years ago, she inflicted the pain of the caged bird on him. He still has not forgotten the pain.

* * *

(With Naruto, in the prison sell.)

Naruto was sitting bored in his sell. after the amusing way of interrogation of Tsunade and Sakura, while Kakashi as an inspector, they all left him alone, and the boredom started to creep in.

But surprisingly enough, Yamato was not bored. Instead he was planning the training of his wielder.

“After you are done manipulating water in every state possible, doesn’t matter whether if it’s raining or flowing, you will try to form a blade of lightning. Once you are done with that, try to cut a small rock with that blade. Then, split a bolt of lightning.” The sword was going on and on for a while.

Apparently, Yamato didn’t like to think quietly. Just hearing those plans alone was enough to make Naruto think what has he had gotten himself into?

Also, where was that sandwich!

But the sound of footsteps outside of his sell was enough to snap the demon out of the boredom.

“Yamato, be quiet. Someone is coming.” He immediately told his sword.

Yamato, such a dutiful sword as he was, immediately obeyed. But there was some protest in that obedience.

The sell door opens, and in walked in…

“Hello there, Naruto.”

Hinata Hyuga, current clan head of the Hyuga clan, and Neji, her suffering servant. It was very obvious from his expression.

“Hello there, Hinata.” Naruto greeted just as nicely. But Hinata did not cared that he didn’t put the lady before her name.

That, or she cared, but did not let that show on her face.

“I see you have done quite well for yourself since I last saw you.” He complimented her.

“Yes, since you left me for that harlot.”

“Now, now, is that really a way to talk about a stranger?” the demon couldn’t resist another trolling opportunity.

“No matter. now that since you are here, that woman can no longer take advantage of her rank.” Hinata said, very confident.

Three seconds of silence. During which Neji was wondering…

‘Is that really what you think?’ he thought, while trying to restrain his laughter.

“Hahahahaha!” Naruto did not have such restrictions on him. “You really thought that, didn’t you?”

Hinata’s pleasant expression immediately soured.

“You see, she was that unapproachable woman, that every man dreams about in this worthless village. I wanted to see whether I had a chance or not. Low and behold, I succeeded.”

“You… you!” what she was hearing, what Naruto was saying, Hinata couldn’t believe any of it.

“Didn’t you remember what I said back when you were acting so offended? After all, you never approached me, didn’t had an ounce of confidence in you.”

“but, but, in the Chunin exams!”

“Ah that, it was a test. A test witch you sadly failed. But look at you now! I admit, I am glad that I was wrong.” Naruto said.

The way this conversation was going so far now, was enough to break Hinata again. But that sentence stopped it from happening.

“That’s right. Now, I am the head of my clan. Once I will take you out of here, everything will be for your taking. This village? The entire Land of Fire? The whole elemental nations? Everything.”

“Ah, how can I say no to such an offer. Why don’t you come closer, so I can explain to you how happy I am currently feeling?” Naruto said, with a widening smile on his face.

Since Hinata’s focus was entirely on Naruto, she didn’t saw the amusement on Neji’s face.

She took few steps, and came closer to the demon.

“A little bit closer…”

She did exactly as he said. By this time, Hinata was standing right next to the Naruto.

One moment Naruto was restrained in seals and chains, bound to his chair. Next, he was leaping up in the air, grabbing Hinata’s hair, and spinning in the air. He then dropped her right on her face, knocking her out in the process.

Neji was very shocked by this abrupt move of Naruto.

“Why did you do that? You do realize that I have to explain that,” he pointed down at the knocked out Hinata, “Right?”

“Don’t worry. Just say she fainted or something. She often did that around me anyway.” Was the quick answer of demon.

“Riiight.” Neji said, not at all convinced.

Though if someone did press him for the detail, he would maliciously use that excuse.

After all, the iron fisted clan head still couldn’t get rid of her weakness to Naruto. What would that do to her reputation?

He of course has to make sure that his name did not come up when she tried to find the person who spread such a vicious rumor about her.

“Oh yeah, here’s the money which they took from you.” Neji said, while taking out the said money.

“It required the pulling of some strings, but I managed to acquire it.”

After thinking for a moment, Naruto replied.

“You can keep it.” said Naruto, shocking Neji.

“What?”

“While I really hate to be here, I realize that it was a petty hate of mine. I just didn’t feel like giving anything to this village who never gave me anything in the first place.”

“You do realize I hate—”

“Charity? It is not. But I really am thankful that you did go on such lengths for me.” Naruto said, appreciation clear in his voice.

“Of course! Do you really need to say anything about it? so, are you sure you don’t want this?” Neji assured and asked.

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll take my leave.” Neji said, while lifting Hinata.

“Oh yeah, make sure that they give me those sandwiches which I ordered, ten minutes ago!”

“It’s a prison, not a hotel.” Saying that, the Hyuga left.

But even then, he did tell the prison management about those sandwiches.

“After all, the prisoner who is demanding them is very powerful. No need to make him furious enough that he would cause problems for us.” Was his logic.

* * *

(Four hours later…)

“If you come in this world,  
You have to work.” Naruto was singing.

“Or this world won’t let you drink,  
Won’t let you drink, won’t let you eat,  
Won’t let you eat; won’t let you live.”

“If you come in this world,  
You have to work.” This time, Yamato chorused with Naruto.

“I doubt you will live long enough for doing any work.” A voice said abruptly.

“Oh?” Naruto said, who dares to talk to him in such a way?

The door opened, and walked in Anko Miterashi, special Jonin of the leaf.

“Hahahaha! Look who we have here, Yamato.”

“Mmmm. Exotic beauty, I say.”

“Don’t tell me Ibiki is getting bored of our wonderful conversations? Or he as a good friend, decided to send you in here to entertain me?”

“As if. Ibiki is the loyal Shinobi. Besides, the only entertainment here is going to be for me, when I will start to gut you slowly you asshole!”

“Wo, wo there, any particular reason for why you are so hostile?” Naruto said in seemingly panicking voice.

“Because of Kuranai!”

“What does Kuranai has to do with any of this?” the demon maintained the same voice.

“I can’t believe that someone could be so shameless—”

“Coming from you, I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“Fine. I will explain if your so ignorant. Your stunt of killing Asuma caused her to break down.” Anko said, visibly struggling with her rage.

“That was an accident!” the demon hollered, “Why didn’t he paid any attention, and rushed me like a freshly trained Genin?”

“She blames herself for his death. So much that she couldn’t even perform her Shinobi duties. The only mercy being, Tsunade understands her grief, giving her enough time to recover even when she needs the Shinobi like her. otherwise—”

“Otherwise some other Kage probably would have pressured her to work, and then she would have ended up like Kakashi.”

Nodding, Anko said, “Exactly. Now, it is your turn to suffer!”

Saying that, she puts a kunai right on Naruto’s cheek.

“And you also blame me for the sudden return of Orochimaru?” Naruto asked, all the traces of fear gone from his voice.

Anko started to tremble.

“Ah, hit the weak spot, didn’t I? after all, the prodigal genius returned. Yet, you remained the same, the Snake bitch.”

“You—” Anko tried to say something, but the demon didn’t give her any chances.

“Come now,” breaking through the chains again, Naruto extended his arm, and pulled Anko in to his lap.

He pulled aside her neck, to observe the curse seal put on her by Orochimaru, all while ignoring her squirming to get out of his grip.

“What an interesting thing. Very intriguing.” Naruto said, fascinated.

“Oy, you have a beautiful woman on your lap, pay attention to that.” Yamato tried to draw the attention to the important point.

“Whatever. stay quiet, would you?” Naruto said, while analyzing the seal some more, making Yamato gawk in process.

As long as Yamato has known Naruto, he has never ignored any beautiful woman. This must be corrected!

“Intriguing… very intriguing…”

“You’re starting to make me worry.” Yamato said in a trembling voice.

Naruto let go of Anko’s neck, but he didn’t release his grip, he also didn’t remove his finger from the seal on her neck.

“It is an interesting blend of biology, chemistry, and a soul, heled together by the seal work. Though I must say, it is really bad seal work.” Hearing that, Anko went stiff.

“Seriously?” Yamato couldn’t believe how single-minded Naruto was being.

Then again, it all started to make sense to Yamato, the demon always had a little bit of fascination with seals.

“Yes. I am surprised that it does even function as it was supposed to.”

After thinking a while, Naruto spoke again.

“Yamato, how exactly would he had learned enough to manipulate a soul?” Naruto asked, some concern in his voice.

“If he is dedicated enough, his own research would be enough to uncover those secrets. Demons and mages are not the ones with the monopoly on soul manipulation after all.” Yamato explained.

Filing the term mage for later to grill Yamato about mercilessly, Naruto’s entire manner shifted.

“That bastard!” he screamed suddenly.

“What?” Anko squeaked.

Nothing was turning out as she was hoping when she entered in this prison sell.

“So, he plans to keep himself alive through this. Well, I won’t have it!” Naruto said, getting mad with the mere thought of immortal Orochimaru.

Focusing some demon energy on to the seal, Naruto destroyed the soul inside of the cursed seal on Anko.

While all this was happening, Anko felt as if she was hearing her cursed teacher’s screams at the back of her head.

“And we’re done.” Naruto said, some satisfaction in his voice.

“That was awfully quick?” Yamato said, not believing the soul purge being accomplished so easily.

“Of course. I even controlled my energy tightly enough that it didn’t even do any damage to her body.” Naruto bragged.

Since Naruto was not keeping a finger on her neck anymore, Anko touched the side of her neck. There was nothing like a mark which was present previously.

“You—” Anko tried to say something, but she herself didn’t knew what she wished to say. But before this conflict could be resolved, Naruto interrupted her.

“I suggest you leave, woman. I have things to plan.” Naruto said, giving the shaken special Jonin a glare for good measure.

Not wanting to see what would the demon would do, considering he was staying in the prison of his own will, Anko left immediately.

“Hmmm. That means that seal on Uchiha is also another soul repository. I must kill him if I were to stop you from coming back again.” Naruto said his plans out loud.

“It wouldn’t be a problem. You will have a chance to kill him later.” Yamato assured.

* * *

(Next day, in the prison sell.)

In the morning, Naruto was singing again, annoying the prison guards to such an extent that they immediately broke their protocol and started to argue with him.

“Hello darkness smile friend,  
I’ve come to visit you again,”

“Stop singing already!” a guard screamed at top of his lungs.

“Oh yeah? Why don’t you come here and make me?” the demon taunted.

* * *

(In the evening…)

“Lord Uzomaki, forgive mehehehe!” a man was crying at the feet of restrained Naruto.

“One task, I gave you one task and you can’t even accomplish that!” Naruto said furiously.

“I am sorry…” the man sniffled.

“Fine. I am a forgiving demon. Bring me the sandwich in one hour, and I won’t slaughter your family.” Naruto hissed.

“Yes! Yes! In one hour, the sandwich will be here!” instantly getting energized, the man jumped up.

* * *

(One hour later…)

“See my lord? I have fulfilled my task this time.” The man said arrogantly, as if he had conquered the world.

Naruto while biting his sandwich, said, “Yes. You have done it this time. I shall not slaughter your family.”

“Oh, thank you, my lord.” Sniffling in relief, the man left the prison sell.

* * *

(Next day…)

“I have voices in my head,  
They council me, they understand, they talk to meeeeeee.”

“Stop it already,” Yamato having reached his limit, said.

“What?” Naruto asked in surprise at this unexpected interruption.

“You have been singing this song from the evening! Since you acquired that sandwich, you haven’t stop singing this song for fourteen hours strait!”

“Oh, it has been that long already?” Naruto, again getting surprised, asked.

“Yes!” Yamato screamed.

“Very well then. To pass our time, why don’t you tell me how further can you train me once we get out of this hellhole?”

“Oh.” Yamato did not expected Naruto to listen so easily. “Aside from elemental manipulation, I need to teach you how to use the normal type energy, the one from which you form that Hyper Beam. Then, some physical training, and mental arts. One thing which you need to understand is that I can only teach you the basic techniques, the rest you have to expand on your own.”

“You mean you can’t teach me any techniques?” Naruto asked in disappointment.

“No. sorry I can’t do that.” Yamato sensing the disappointment in Naruto’s voice, said.

“No problem.” Naruto was back to his usual mood.

* * *

(With Sasuke.)

After knocking Sasuke out, Naruto removed the demonic spell which he had put on him. He didn’t want for Uchiha to suddenly wake up, and kill himself due to his incapability of movement.

When Naruto was sent to his prison cell, Sasuke was brought to the hospital. He was now in the recovery ward, where he was kept in the dangerous patient section.

By the next day, he woke up. He noticed that there were people on the room where ever he was, so he kept himself quiet.

But then he heard the voice… the voice of Sakura.

“His Chakra levels are getting back to normal. He should awake anytime soon.” Sakura was giving a report to someone.

In his mind, Sasuke snorted to himself. ‘As if you know whether I am awake or not.’

But then, he heard another voice. One far more dangerous than Sakura.

“Oh, I think he is awake alright.” Tsunade said, glaring at Sasuke. “Give up the act already, Uchiha.”

“Who,” Sasuke rasped.

“What? I can’t hear you clearly.”

“Who the hell are you to command me?” Sasuke spoke louder.

Having to endure the failed interrogation of Naruto, in which she was practically feeling the disapproval of Ibiki previous day, Tsunade did not took the disrespect as well as she could have.

“Who do you think you are to question me?” she said, while grabbing Sasuke’s wrist in an iron grip.

“Lady Tsunade, you must let go of him, you will injure him again!” Sakura said, after seeing how much enraged Tsunade was.

“Shut it, Sakura!” having no patience for the foolishness of her student, Tsunade said harshly.

Sakura immediately quieted herself.

But Sasuke was having some different concerns at that time. “I’m- impossible! Just where did he brought me?”

“You’re in the Leaf, boy.” Tsunade said, while loosening her grip a little.

But she did not let go of Sasuke’s hand, at the slightest chance of disrespect she would squeeze hard, to remind him who was the in charge here.

Then, the memories started to come at Sasuke. His fight with the mad bomber, his plans to eliminate people like Kabuto and Orochimaru including the people who taught them, Naruto’s arrival, his fight with Itachi, the truth he told him, his helplessness, all of it come back at once.

And to think that he was back to the same place, that same righteous, wretched place.

Tsunade and Sakura gasped in surprise, when Sasuke’s Sharingan activated on its own. The surprise did not end there however. His eyes also started shift to his usual Tommo, to pinwheel pattern.

“Release my hand.” He ordered.

“What?” Tsunade couldn’t believe herself.

“Release my hand, woman.” He said again, more commandingly this time.

“You!”

Since due to Tsunade’s surprise, her grip was already slackened. Because of that, Sasuke was able to shrug her hand.

Before Tsunade could express her rage again, Sasuke asked another question.

“Where is Naruto.”

“Why do you want to know?” Tsunade was not inclined to answer him.

“I must kill him. To prove my strength.” He uttered the same words… the words he used to say regarding Itachi, now they were said for Naruto.

“There will be none of that.” Another voice hissed.

“When did you arrive here?” Tsunade questioned Orochimaru, while hiding her surprise.

“When he activated his Mangekyo.” Orochimaru said.

Sasuke sat up, and took a look on the glass of the nearby window.

The same sort of eyes Itachi had were staring at him.

“Tell me. Where is Itachi’s body?” the snake Sannin questioned.

“Why do you want his body?” Sasuke, clearly, didn’t wanted to cooperate with any of these people.

“Because we must transplant his eyes into you. Otherwise, you will go blind.” Orochimaru said briskly.

“He vaporized the body.” After hearing what Orochimaru was saying, Sasuke said.

“Fuck.” Orochimaru cursed.

“But I have these eyes. I am sure I can beat him now.” Sasuke said, very cold and confident at the same time.

“Foolish boy! Even I have to think of alternative plans to beat that demon. What makes you think you can do anything?” Orochimaru berated.

“And you have such a great success, clearly.” Sasuke sarcastically remarked.

Tsunade snarled.

“Why don’t you join us again?” Orochimaru asked smoothly.

“Because this village slaughtered my clan on the order of the council! They didn’t even consult the Hokage.” Sasuke said, anger taking over him once again.

“Listen. You will get your chance at the revenge. Don’t consider joining the village, join me.” Orochimaru tried another angle.

“What?” Tsunade couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Orochimaru motioned Tsunade to remain quiet. “What do you say? You’ve gotten the chance to face against the Uzomaki, and the revenge at the village.”

Clenching his hands into the fists, Sasuke nodded.

“Fine. But don’t presume to command me. If I had a chance, I will slaughter you all.” Sasuke didn’t wanted any doubts of comradery between them.

Tsunade clearly wanted to interject, but she was quickly hustled out by Orochimaru.

* * *

(Third day, in Hokage’s office.)

All three Sannin were gathered in the Hokage’s office, they were discussing what to do with the demands of their prisoner Naruto.

“Jiraiya, did you find anything?” Tsunade was asking.

“Sadly, no., did you?” Jiraiya said and asked, knowing that the Hokage has her own sources.

“Nothing. But as a side effect, we never have so much security regarding the spies. Only few of them are still here, and they all are at the lower levels. Of course, they are monitored constantly.” Even with all that, she wasn’t satisfied.

“That might be. But you don’t have unlimited ANBU, what you’re doing currently is already stretching the forces thin.” Orochimaru spoke then.

“Oh? What would you have me do?” Tsunade glared.

“Not much you can do anyway.” Orochimaru returned her glare with a smirk.

“Then keep your mouth shut.” Tsunade told him.

“Is this about Uchiha?” Orochimaru asked then, not used to people talking to him in such tones anymore… unless they were enemies.

“Yes, it is. At a time like this, I can’t let anyone breach my authority. And yet you, you aloud that to happen!” Tsunade said, slamming her hand to her desk.

“Look,” Jiraiya said then, “As far as I know Orochimaru, he doesn’t do anything illogical. Then you must have something in mind, right?” Jiraiya turned to his snake teammate, and asked.

“Yes, I do. We need a figure, a figure behind whom the younger generation of Shinobi can rally.”

Tsunade snorted. “And you think that brat could be that figure?”

“Yes. Not at the way he is now, but sooner or later he’ll break by constantly surrounded by the ninjas of this village.” He also wanted to do a pseudo-experiment with this.

“Whatever. We have tried all of our options, and we have nothing to show for it.” Jiraiya explained their situation.

“Then the question is, should we grant Uzomaki his demand?”

Jiraiya winced at how Tsunade so coldly pronounced his former student’s name.

‘Is that how Sensei felt when he was fighting Orochimaru?’ the toad Sannin thought to himself.

“We don’t have any other choice.” Jiraiya said.

“You know, it occurs to me that we could just execute him somewhere in secret, or drug him up to the gills, and then brainwash him, or do any number of things.” Orochimaru suggested the ways which came in his mind.

“But people would ask questions.” Jiraiya rebutted.

“That is the problem. He has built a reputation. Not to mention his allies might do something.” And that something, was Tsunade couldn’t predict.

“It still is a bad idea. What does it matter if few small countries ask questions?” Orochimaru shrugged.

“And that is why Sensei didn’t pick you for the position of the fourth, you really don’t have any concept of public relations.” Jiraiya was quick to jibe.

Orochimaru snarled at that dig by Jiraiya.

“There is no point in arguing about it,” Tsunade sighed. “The trial is going to take place from two days now.”

Both of them nodded. After all, the Hokage has given her final decision. None of them could do anything now.

* * *

(In the prison.)

Naruto was sitting on the floor of his prison-sell in the lotus position, as opposed of sitting on the chair covered with suppressing seals.

He was contemplating what exactly meant the word freedom to him.

This isn’t the first time he had done so. In the past, whenever something hard came up, he always thought about it.

Naruto also thought about Orochimaru, about how it would be an annoying task to kill him. Especially when that stupid Uchiha just wouldn’t let him get rid of the seal on his neck.

That also brings the point again, how come he didn’t go insane even after putting the pieces of his soul inside those seals.

Of course, people might argue that he was, in fact very much insane. But Naruto wouldn’t agree with them. yes, he was a mad scientist. But even after that, he was still a calculative person, and he never lost any of that calculative personality.

Also, the words written on that tablet… they always came back to him.

why does he care about it? it wouldn’t be like in his crusade of freedom, the gods, pretenders or not, might suddenly decide to involve themselves, surely, he wouldn’t cause that much chaos? After all, the only thing which he wants is little bit of freedom. What could be wrong with that?

Of course, he also thought when exactly are they were going to hold his trial. They have to agree for his demand, his image was just too public not to do so.

Being a prisoner, he naturally wouldn’t be informed until the very last moment. But considering that he had spent four days in the prison, and the guards, Ibiki, and usual inspection in the prison hasn’t took place since the yesterday, he was sure that the trial was today.

‘Hm. It must be February fifteenth by this time.’ He thought to himself.

Of course, he got bored by thinking so much. So, he did the most natural thing came to him… he started to sing.

That, also made Yamato sigh. Because whenever he got bored, or his time didn’t pass, Naruto started to sing. Perhaps it was a bad idea to let him be in the prison sell for so long?

“There is no holding me back,  
I am not driven by fear; I am just driven by anger.” Naruto sang in the silence of the prison.

“Not creepy at all.” Yamato chimed in.

Also, the sword was thinking where exactly that piano music was coming from? The kind which one would hear in the horror movie.

Still, Naruto continued on with his singing.

“I’M just climbing up slowly, I’M the one and only, I…  
The tease, the ways you lie,”

“Still not creepy.” Yamato tried to draw Naruto’s attention away from the song, but his attempt failed.

“But whatever you need, ever you got,  
I’ll take it back again.”

“Something tells me that line was supposed to be sung in the higher pitch than that.” Yamato said.

Because Naruto continued to sing in his usual creepy tone, not changing even a little.

But then the door opened.

* * *

(Few minutes ago, with Ibiki Morino.)

As the scarred Jonin was walking down to the prison area towards the cell of Naruto, he was wondering about the recent decisions of the high command.

Ibiki wasn’t one of the Shinobi who would question the decisions of their leaders. But the recent events have left him no choice.

First of all, the easy acceptance of Orochimaru. He understood the logic about two enemies allying with each other to take out another enemy.

But the fact that Orochimaru was so easily accepted in the decision making of the Leaf, that was hard to swallow.

Same thing with Uchiha. If someone like him could leave their home just because of the power… leaving someone half dead, in Ibiki’s opinion he wouldn’t want to do anything with that sort of Shinobi.

Of course, someone can argue the fact that the same person did betrayed them, and was now sitting in the prison sell. But it still did not change the fact that Uchiha and Orochimaru cannot be trusted.

He was so lost in his musings that he did not even realize when he arrived at the door of the prison-sell of Naruto.

Wondering whether the demon has gone insane or not, (After interrogating him so many times, Ibiki didn’t have any doubts about his claim of being a demon.)  
he opened the door.

What he saw inside the sell however, baffled him greatly. Instead of chained to his chair, the demon was sitting in a lotus position, singing a song in an unchanging tone.

Noticing Ibiki, Naruto said, “Ah, you really have entertained me like a guest all this time. I will give you a painless death as a reward.”

“Tch. It is time for your trial, Uzomaki.” Ibiki said, not in the mood for the games of the demon.

“Yes…” the demon said, and got up from the lotus position.

Just when Ibiki was about to put restrains on Naruto for marching him up to his execution point, Yamato appeared in his hand, and before Ibiki could do anything, it was stabbed right into his heart by the next second.

Ibiki’s last moments were spent thinking about his little brother Idate. After all, the demon knew him, would he find him and kill him as well?

He also thought about the choices he made regarding his brother. But before he could complete the line of thought he was dead.

* * *

(With Naruto, near the stadium.)

Naruto knew that the civilians harbored great amount of hatred for him. So, it would be natural that they would want to make it big the occasion of the demise of the demon.

By that logic, it was easy for him to find the place where he will be supposed to get executed.

When he arrived at the stadium, the cheer of the crowd confirmed his thoughts correct.

“All the clews lie in, hiding in the traces of the bodies…  
Of the people whom we murdered in the past!” Naruto sang cheerfully.

“Seriously, what is up with you and creepy songs today? you’re not that bad usually.” Yamato asked, concerned.

Not answering Yamato’s question, Naruto asked the question of his own.

“Do you hear this, Yamato?” the demon asked seriously.

“What, the cheering of the people?” Yamato asked in return.

“Correct. Each and every person inside that building either seeks to imprison us, and use us as a weapon. Whenever they will be involved in the conflict, they will put us out in the frontlines until the day we dy.” Naruto explained, getting agitated just by the thought alone.

“Others, seek our death. Both mine and yours. And there is no question about it. if they succeed in killing me, you are going to experience fate worse than death.”

“What?” came the shocked reply of Yamato.

“Either they would try to extract your power, or melt you and made another weapon under their control… and if they can’t do any of those things, destroy you completely.”

Yamato grimaced.

Perhaps those conditions are the reason why Naruto was in such a strange mood today.

Naruto started to walk towards the stadium.

“I feel like a gladiator, walking towards my death to entertain the stupid bloodthirsty masses.” Naruto said, while featuring a heavy scowl on his face.

“But unlike them, you aren’t a slave.” Yamato tried to lighten the load on his wielder’s mind.

“True. And I am going to fight for my freedom!” back to his usual self, Naruto started to walk towards the stadium more confidently.

‘There it is again…’ Yamato noted quietly. ‘What exactly the freedom means to you, Naruto?’


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17.  
The trial has been murder on my fingers.

(At the stadium.)

Everyone was waiting for the prisoner to arrive. The Shinobi were getting restless, while the crowd of the civilians was also getting agitated.

“Where is he?” Tsunade asked, getting agitated herself.

“Lady Tsunade, you shouldn’t worry about it.” Shizune was assuring her, “Ibiki will bring him strait to here.”

“I know…” the Hokage sighed.

She took the hat she was wearing which was the mark of her position as a Hokage, into her hands, and started to think not for the first time, that the responsibility was too heavy for her.

Orochimaru and Jiraiya were right by her side, but both of them had their own concerns to think about.

Orochimaru was wondering what will they would do when his repeated warnings will come true.

While Jiraiya was thinking where exactly did he went wrong regarding Naruto.

‘Perhaps I didn’t go wrong as much as I didn’t know him.’ The sage thought to himself.

After all, despite being his godfather, Jiraiya did not met Naruto until the Chunin exams. Even then, he didn’t form much of a personal relationship with the boy. After all, what would someone care when they don’t have much of a personal relation, or an obligation to someone?

Still, when he considers everything… it still hurts. Specially regarding the toad contract.

Meanwhile, others were simmering in hatred. Team eight, for example.

While Shino did not care about what Naruto did on the personal level, he still proved himself as a traitor. While Kiba’s overprotective instinct towards Hinata caused him to have a scorching hatred towards Naruto.

Team ten however, had much more of a reason. Shikamaru was finally getting an understanding how Sasuke felt towards Itachi. He still couldn’t believe how easily Naruto killed Asuma, and just called it a mistake. As if he never wanted to kill the bearded Jonin in the first place.

While team Gai didn’t have much of a personal stake in the entire problem, Lee was still taking it hard. He couldn’t believe someone who used to be so charismatic and loyal… turned out to be like this.

Of course, Tenten wanted Lee to shut up about it, even though she agreed with his thoughts, while Neji’s lips were twitching, as if he was trying to hide a smirk.

As for the team seven, Sakura was getting worried. She really thought that once Naruto and Sasuke came to the village, they both will become somehow loyal again. while Sasuke simmered in rage. Both at the people around him and at Naruto.

Though if he were to compare at what he was angrier at, then these people would come on top. Not even two days, and they all (Shinobi and civilians alike,) started to look at him as if he was the solution to all of their problems… just like his childhood.

Don’t get him started on the behavior of those annoying fan-girls, screaming like banshees on the street at the top of their lungs. If he wouldn’t be getting to fight Naruto, he would have killed them all.

Then, an unrecognizable figure started to walk towards the stage. At first, no one noticed due to the crowd of people, but as the figure came close to the people in the crowd, they would automatically stop howling for blood, instead they would sit down in to their chair, expression of terror in their faces.

As the figure started to get in the middle of the crowd, people started to make way for that figure. Let the Shinobi deal with the nightmare.

Soon after that, Tsunade, the council, and all the Shinobi on the stage started to realize that someone was walking towards the stage. At first, Tsunade thought that this might be the mystery person who would help Naruto. But as the figure got closer… she realizes that it was Naruto himself.

“Dammit! Where is Ibiki?” the Hokage cursed quietly.

“Dead, most likely. I did warn you, didn’t I?” Orochimaru spoke next to her.

“Shut up, Orochimaru. This is not the time.” Jiraiya berated.

As he continued to walk, every single eye was on Naruto. All the Shinobi who were assigned as security, all of his classmates, the Jonin instructors, and all the people with whom he interacted in the past.

Realizing that he was at the center of attention, he smirked and waved.

‘Too bad that there aren’t any cameras in this part of the world.’

Then he thought about the vultures which would be born due to that… and promptly dismissed the idea.

As he stepped in to the stage, Naruto was surrounded by ANBU. One of them stepped up next to him, so he could put the handcuffs on Naruto. But the demon growled in warning.

“If you care about these people’s lives, then you won’t touch me until the trial is over.”

Just for a moment, the ANBU considered the words of demon. But then he shook his head, and continued his task.

“Fine. You don’t leave me any choice.” Naruto just started to gather energy on his palm, that he was interrupted.

“Pig, back down.” The voice of Hokage came.

Knowing the gravity of situation, the ANBU nodded without arguing, and did as Tsunade ordered, back down and let Naruto without handcuffs.

“Guess the alcohol didn’t killed as many braincells as I thought.” Naruto said with a smirk.

Tsunade valiantly ignored the attempt to anger her, instead focused on the important task in front of her.

“Naruto Uzomaki, you stand trial for the crimes of killing the Shinobi of the Leaf, conspiring against the Leaf, and betrayal to the Leaf village. How do you plead?” Tsunade in her capacity as Hokage, asked.

“Not guilty.” Was the simple answer of Naruto.

Several Shinobi took sharp breath on that answer, while the crowd started to howl in anger once more.

“Very well.” Schooling her face, Tsunade asked the next question so the trial can proceed. “Do you have any Shinobi Lawyer to defend you?”

Naruto looked around. All the Shinobi in the direction of which he looked in, averted their gaze, as if fearing that the demon would pick them to defend him.

Naruto snorted. ‘As if any of these morons can defend me, they are more likely to doom me to execution.’

Naruto prepared to say something. but before he could do so, he was interrupted.

“Um. Hello?” a voice said from somewhere.

All the Shinobi started to look around.

Naruto sighed. “They can’t see you right now, Yamato.”

Hearing that name, Tsunade motioned the paranoid ninjas to relax. As long as that sword was not in the hands of Naruto, it could hardly pose a danger.

She did not take her eyes off Naruto though.

“Oh yeah. You see, four thousand years ago, I acquired a lawyer’s degree.” Yamato said proudly.

Naruto shivered. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he was literally carrying a lawyer all this time, without knowing.

“You never asked. Anyway, as a lawyer, I wish to defend my wielder.” Yamato concluded his request.

“Denied. Inanimate objects like yourself are not allowed to fight in the case on behalf of your wielder.” Hamura the councilman said.

“What? That’s discrimination! Not even the demon court would insult me like that!” if anything, being the wielder of Yamato would garner Naruto a lot of respect.

“Irrelevant. You are not in the demon court.” Kaheru the council lady said with a sneer… which Yamato despite not out of Naruto’s dimension, could practically feel.

“You know,” Naruto spoke then. “The way your speaking, implies that your leader is tongueless.” Not able to take disrespect his friend was receiving, Naruto decided to retaliate in the manner he knew best.

Bristling in anger, Tsunade spoke with all the authority she could muster.

“All of you, will remain quiet.” She said, while trying not to grit her teeth in anger.

Meanwhile Naruto after insulting Tsunade and putting her on the tail of her own council, he was assuring his heartbroken sword.

“I-I-I can’t believe it!” Yamato was sniffling. He was so angry that he didn’t cared about what people would think about him. “I have never received so much disrespect in my entire life!”

Naruto, understood what Yamato was feeling all too well.

“Don’t worry Yamato,” the demon said in low tone, so no one will hear him. “They will pay with their blood… every single one of them.”

“Thanks. You are the nicest wielder I ever had.” Yamato said, touched.

After quelling the council to her satisfaction, Tsunade turned to Naruto again.

“Do you have any other option?” she asked again.

“Don’t worry. I am more than capable of defending myself.” Naruto assured.

The Hokage got a smirk on her face. “Very well then. Let the trial begin.”

That announcement caused the crowd to cheer loudly.

“So, you consider yourself not guilty for the crimes you have been accused of?”

“Yes.” Naruto said with a relaxed smile.

“Explain why you are not guilty then?”

“You said I conspired against the Leaf, breaking my loyalty in the process, correct?” Naruto asked for confirmation.

Tsunade nodded.

“Well, how about I wasn’t loyal in the first place, so that point becomes moot.” It was the troll logic, that much the demon knew. But what does it matter whether he screwed with their heads a little? None.

“What?” Tsunade and the crowd of ninja exclaimed.

“I object lady Tsunade, you must not aloud someone like him to distract you. Just announce his punishment.” The council members spoke again.

“Really? First becoming tongueless, and now getting ordered around by your own subordinates?” the demon made a tsk sound.

Tsunade got a really ugly expression on her face. “You people… will remain quiet, or I’ll kill you myself.”

“But—” they tried to protest, but their protest died on their lips.

Meanwhile, Danzo was enjoying their plight. there was always a hidden sadist within him, about which no one knows.

“BUT NOTHING!” the slug princess exploded.

The council members have no choice other than backing down.

Both of the elders were looking quite furious. Naruto was wondering whether he can kill them by causing a rage induced heart attack.

“What about the killing of your squad leader?” taking a deep breath, the Hokage continued the line of questions.

“That was inconvenient I admit. But the blame lies with you as well. Did you really thought that I will tolerate someone who was literally a chain around my neck?” Naruto said, with a tone of ‘Really?’

“You knew why we sent Yamato with your team then.” Hokage asked.

“Of course, I knew.” The demon confirmed easily.

“And before you ask me about killing Asuma… I must ask you. Was there any point in asking about that? I made my intensions clear by that point. It was hardly any different than one Shinobi killing other for the accomplishment of his task, something which you regularly send people to do.”

“Nonsense!” the elders couldn’t keep themselves quiet.

“Nonsense? hahahahahahahaha!” Naruto roared with the laughter. “Who was it who decided that it would be a great idea to spread the information about Jinchuriki? Oh, I forgot, it was exactly the same people sitting in front of me.”

All the council members who have still been serving since that time, (Including elders,) got a sour expression on their faces, as if they were forced to swallow something disgusting.

“But before you continue with idiotic questions of yours, I will start from beginning. Because really, I don’t have time to answer all of your useless question, which don’t even come anywhere near close to the truth.”

“What?” everyone asked collectively.

Well, everyone who followed the events up to this point. The rest of the people were confused.

“Oh yeah, the only reason why I am doing this is because someone up their really loves torturing me. I hope you are ready.”

* * *

Int flashback(int);  
{//Flashback begins.

One moment, everyone was sitting on the stage, waiting for the trial to end. The next moment, they were all, (Including the crowd of civilians,) were transported in to some strange location.

“What did you do!” Tsunade demanded an answer.

“No, no, no! don’t panic. Apparently, this is normal, or I think this is normal.” Was the confusing answer of Naruto.

“What do you mean?” Tsunade asked again.

“Nothing. You all wanted answers, I will give you those answers here.” Naruto said seriously.

“How?” the Hokage did not see how this strange place could give her any answers.

“Look around you.” Naruto said.

All the Shinobi started to look around. Jiraiya couldn’t believe it. it was the Leaf village, around thirteen or so years ago, half-built buildings after the Nine tails attack proved that.

Orochimaru’s and Jiraiya’s exclamation of surprises were enough for Tsunade to confirm that what she was seeing… was not an illusion.

“Naruto.” She said guardedly. “It is a wide area illusion, right?”

“No. this is something new. You see, as I was preparing to tell you my story, it triggered a memory in my mind.”

“A memory?” the Hokage asked.

“Yes. Apparently, this is used by the demons to show the visuals as well as explanations during their trials.” Naruto said in a superior tone.

“Great then. Please begin your story.” Tsunade said, a sarcastic note in her voice.

“Of course.” Then, Naruto started to walk towards some place, as if he did not have any worries in the world.

“Wait, where are you going!” the squads of ANBU tried to stop Naruto.

“Relax, no one can hurt anyone in here.” Naruto said, not at all bothered by the ANBU coming after him.

Not listening to any words of his, the ANBU tried to grab him by force.

They payed dearly, for they immediately suffered the lightning from the sky.

“That was exactly the same lightning when Naruto tried to kill Sasuke in the village!” Sakura said.

“Yes, you are really good at stating obvious. Good job, Sakura.” Naruto just could not resist that dig.

Of course, he got a glare for his efforts.

Still, no one tried to grab him by force again for the rest of his walk.

“Ah, we have arrived.” Naruto said, while stopping near a poorly maintained building.

The building does not seem to suffer from the attack of the Nine tails, but it was appeared to be poorly maintained in general.

In the crowd of people, Kabuto experienced a twinge in his heart, something which he thought he would never experience ever again. He glared at Danzo.

Jiraiya also recognized the place. This was the place where he grew up, before he was adopted by a civilian family.

He remembered the bitter events to this day… as if they were yesterday’s memory.

The family was of merchants. They were fine if Jiraiya attended the Shinobi academy. They also didn’t have much of a problem with his conduct, or how he was getting trained by the Sarutobi heir.

What they weren’t fine with however, was the Jiraiya’s participation on the recently started second Shinobi war.

They wanted him to leave his career of a ninja, instead focus on the family business. Jiraiya refused, and it got to the point that one day when he got home… his adopted father told him that they didn’t want to do anything with him, that he overall turned out to be a disappointing investment.

He was kicked out of his home. That day, Tsunade and Orochimaru, no matter what he thought about his fool of a teammate, carried a drunk Jiraiya back to his apartment.

When they arrived in this strange world, it was the daytime. But people couldn’t believe it, just one moment ago, there was afternoon, and next moment it was the night time, when most of the people were having dinner most likely.

Naruto entered into the building. Naturally, the people who came along with him followed.

They saw a strange scene inside of the building.

What they saw inside of the building was the younger orphans being fed. All the children were mingling with each other, yet there was one three years old who was sitting on the side, hopefully looking at those other children that they would include him in their group as well.

During this time, dew to children being a messy eater, they were fed by various workers of the orphanage. Yet, Naruto did not have any such assistance. The only thing which he had were the glares each time he spilled his food. According to the people, that food could have been used for feeding more people, instead of a thing of which they won’t even talk about.

What the Shinobi saw however, was two different images of a same person. Even the people who were holding the seething hatred of Naruto have to acknowledge that.

The Naruto whom they know, he was crafty, cunning, and ruthless. He has proven that by deceiving the entire population of a Shinobi village.

But the child in front of them… he does not have any crafty gleam in his eyes. Only a yearning to be included.

Time accelerated again, and now they were looking at much older Naruto. Around five years old to be exact.

By this time, people started to see the beginning of a person who actually brought them here.

“Ah, those days were very fun, I admit.” The demon said with a wistful tone.

“What?” Tsunade who was the closest to him, asked.

It seems the task of asking question was relegated to her only.

“See for yourself.” The demon said while pointing in a direction of the orphanage.

A younger Naruto came running in the orphanage, carrying something in his hands. The people did not saw what it was, but it was very large. Few civilian people came running after him… after five minutes were over.

by that point, Naruto ran into his room, hid the stuff he was carrying, and started to pretend as if nothing was wrong.

The people barged in to the building. The workers informed the head of the orphanage, who was recently installed after the disappearance of mis Nono, who was the previous head of the orphanage.

“Listen miss Yoru. We respect what you’re doing, but you really must hand over that fiend.” One of the civilians was saying to the lady, after he got his breath back.

“Yes! Did you know that he stole entire crate of my licker?” another one spoke.

“Mine too!” others confirmed the statement of the second one.

“Listen. I will call him down, and if he is guilty, I will punish him accordingly. Understood?” the lady said in an uncompromising tone.

“But—” they tried to protest, but Yoru was not having any of it.

She very well knew what will happen to the child if she left him on the tender mercies of these people.

“Understood?” she said, more slowly, a threat entering in her voice.

“U-understood.” They weren’t happy, but none of them had any choice.

“Good then. Taro, call the child here.” Yoru said to a bulky man.

Face twisting in a grimace, the man stomped up to Naruto’s room.

The door opened, and a face appeared in the room.

“The Lady is calling you down, you better get there on time.” The man said in a grumbling voice.

Naruto appeared out of the nowhere, startling the man greatly.

“Of course, I’ll be there.”

Meanwhile, the people who were watching this scene winced at the tone of child Naruto.

“Man, even back then, I really got it. hmhmhmhm.” Naruto chuckled after watching his performance.

Naruto trotted down from the first floor of the orphanage building to the ground floor, where the lady of the orphanage was waiting for him.

Naruto appeared, contrary to his cold behavior to the man at just one floor above, he was appearing to be quite charming and the aura of innocence was pervading around him.

Seeing this, the people observing the scene couldn’t believe their eyes.

“You called, miss Yoru?” Naruto said in an innocent voice.

“Yes.” The woman said gently.

That actually surprised the people who were watching the scene. One would think that the newly appointed head of the orphanage will show the same behavior as the staff of the orphanage did. The same quiet contempt for the child, which they can’t express dew to the rules of Sarutobi.

But Yoru was not showing any of that.

“Come to think of it, Nono was also the same way. Though she would have never defended me.” The demon commented.

Hearing that comment from Naruto, just for a moment, Kabuto smirked. But that smirked disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

“Tell me, you went outside today?” she asked.

“Yes, just like every other day.” Naruto answered.

Dew to the contempt people feel for him, the staff of the orphanage ignores Naruto entirely. Thus, when other children try to bully him, they won’t even help him.

Naturally, when children do that with other children of the orphanage, they get berated. So, all the young children have taken that it was okay to bully one, but not others.

To escape all that, Naruto spends most of his time outside of the orphanage. it was better than suffering these morons in his opinion.

“Well then, did you go to the market section?” the lady continued the questioning.

“Um, yeah?” the child confirmed hesitatingly.

Yoru started to frown. “Did you go to the section which I warned you not to go when you started to go outside?”

“Never!” that answer, especially given with such conviction, shocked everyone, and made Yoru smirk.

“There you have it gentleman. Since he didn’t even go to your area, he couldn’t even do what you’re accusing him of.” Yoru said, satisfaction in her voice.

“But, but,” all the businessmen spluttered.

“But nothing. you have your answer. Stop accusing orphan children for your own lack of security! Do you hear me?” the lady thundered.

“Y-yes.” All the men were cowed from her anger.

“Good. Now, leave. I have some paperwork to fill for some adoptions.” She said dismissively.

All the people who barged in the orphanage, stiffly started to make their way outside, not at all happy with the events.

The people who were observing all of this, did saw the glare the child gave these people. But a moment later, the charming mask was back on his face.

“May I go to my room, miss Yoru?” Naruto asked sweetly.

“Oh yeah, you are free to go.” The lady gave her permission.

Naruto walked as long as he was on Yoru’s sight, but as soon as he felt she was not looking at him, he started to run.

He couldn’t stop the thumping noise of the footsteps from Yoru however, causing the woman to smile.

* * *

(Later, during the night time.)

Since no one can fight or hurt each other in this strange world, Kakashi didn’t have any problems in approaching and talking to Naruto.

“Ba, Naruto you really have such a boring flashback.” The Jonin was complaining.

“Oh really? You should blame yourself. After all, it was you who—” Naruto was itching for a while to give Kakashi a piece of his mind, but Yamato stopped him.

“Naruto! You wouldn’t want them knowing that, trust me.” The sword said in the middle of the rant of his wielder.

After thinking about the implications of what he was about to say, Naruto agreed with Yamato’s assessment.

“Oh yeah, thanks for the save, Yamato!”

“Now, I know you’re hiding something. Come on, you can share it with your former sensei you know? I promise, I won’t judge.” Kakashi said, while giving Naruto a strange look.

Yamato snickered, while Naruto glared furiously at Kakashi. The man was the one who was responsible for putting him in this situation, and now he was behaving as if nothing was wrong.

On top of that, he couldn’t even tell him why exactly it was his fault!

“I’m not telling you. Just know this that it is your fault.” Naruto said, petulantly.

“How cruel!” Kakashi said while clutching his heart.

Naruto just sighed.

“You know,” the demon spoke to his former teacher then, “I never understood why exactly people believed me when I told them it is a demon technique, which I remember just because of a triggering of a memory.”

“Because unlike any other illusion, we can interact with each other. besides, it is good to take on someone’s word, otherwise we always question the reality, and live a life filled with paranoia.” Was the completely serious answer of Kakashi.

“Not that you don’t already.” Naruto knew that people like Kakashi never off that system in their mind which inform them of danger… even if it rang a lot of false alarms.

“Right.”

‘Of course, it didn’t stopped people from branding me a demon, and never listening to my protest. In the end, I became what you called me behind my back.’ Naruto said, not at all impressed with the reasoning of the people of the Leaf.

Then, another scene started to take place, taking the attention of Kakashi and other Shinobi present.

“So, you’ve got what we asked for?” a teenager was asking to the five years old Naruto.

“Yes.” Was the simple answer of the child.

“Well, where is it.” another one asked.

“What exactly would you think happen if I get caught with those things? They are in a safe place.”

“Well, that’s reasonable.” The third one said.

Then, Naruto took the three teenagers to another part of the building, avoiding the staff expertly, causing the teens to be impressed with the child secretly.

Then, he took them into a room, which looked to be abandoned for a long while.

“Here,” the child gave them the containers which he was carrying when running earlier in the day.

At that time, the people did not saw what exactly Naruto was carrying clearly. But now, exclamation of shocks was everywhere, as the people realized that the allegations against the child… were correct!

One of the civilians then suddenly started to yell, “I remember. My father told me that around ten or so years ago, a theft of alcohol took place, and the thief was never caught.”

“But the question is, why would a child steel alcohol?” other civilians discussed this among themselves.

“Why because he was a demon all along of course!” one of them said.

“Don’t be an idiot. There must be some other purpose.”

“Yes, and that purpose you will see…” an old Shinobi grumbled, “If you shut up for a moment.” Why did he choose to stand next to these fools again?

Embarrassed, all the people lowered their head, Shinobi and civilians alike.

Giving the clearly alcoholic drinks to the three teenagers, Naruto said, “Now, you must fulfill your part.”

The first teen smirked then. “And what if we don’t?”

The older boy took a step back, as a furious anger appeared in child’s eyes.

“Then I promise, I will kill all of you in your sleep.”

“Now,” the third teen spoke then, clearly the most levelheaded among the teens, “No need to antagonize our source like that. We’ll fulfill our part, no problem.”

The anger subsided, and got replaced with weary caution.

* * *

(Next day…)

The teens were teaching Naruto reading and writing. Which the child understood would come in handy one day if he wishes to become powerful.

After all, what is the point of being powerful, when you are illiterate, and need other people’s help in reading and writing?

Meanwhile, the teens were confused. They did not understand why would someone go for such lengths to learn something so useless.

Still, it was the part of the deal which they had with the child, so they were going to fulfill it.

“But,” Sakura couldn’t help but ask, “Why go to such lengths? Were you that desperate?”

“Ah, poor little sheltered Sakura. Even to this day, you have no knowledge of how the world works, do you?” while Naruto understood why she asked that question, he couldn’t help himself but troll her further.

“Let me explain then.”

When Naruto saw that more people were listening then just Kakashi, (Who was shamelessly dropping in on the conversation,) Sasuke, who was just there, and the three Sannin, the demon gotten himself straiten and started to explain as if he was giving an important lecture about the world in which all of them lived in.

These mannerisms angered people again. But dew to the restrictions of this world, they couldn’t do anything.

“You see Sakura, since these teenagers weren’t adopted, they knew that they would have a hard life ahead of them.” Sakura nodded.

“Then, naturally they would start to plan for their future before you actually ever started to worry about those sorts of things.”

“They tried the ninja academy, but failed. The stress level got doubled. What are they supposed to do in such case? There is no one behind them, or after them to care or look. The one profession they thought they could in role, failed them before they can even start.”

“So, finding their way in life can be quite stressful. to deal with the stress, it was very common in the orphanage to see people of their age drinking, or becoming worst alcoholics than Tsunade.” The demon gave a stink eye to the Hokage.

The slug Sannin bristled at that remark.

“Naturally, since no one was willing to teach me reading and writing, while you lucky bastards have parents teaching you by guiding your hand, I’ve had to find alternative means. I saw a need, fulfill the said need, and in return got the thing which I wanted. It is simple as that.”

People were horror struck at that moment. Specially civilians. They might hate Naruto, but they never realized that they practically pushed most of the orphans at the very edge of society.

“And the wonderful situation doesn’t end there!” Naruto said cheerfully, as if he was recounting a happy tale.

“If they managed to get in the Shinobi ranks, then the hell begins for them again, or I should say, another part of the hell starts. Hahahahaha!”

At that point, Naruto was on a role. He did not care that people were watching him. He just continued to present the situation… in all of its ugly glory.

“Once they are in the ninja ranks, they will have to compete with the clans. Naturally, the clan Shinobi have the best resources, missions, training, their medical bills are covered by their clans, while these Shinobi have none of those.” The demon continued.

“Lies!” Tsunade protested, “When they get hurt in a mission, they get free healing in the military hospital!”

“If they got hurt in the mission. But what about the training accidents? Or any other injury they suffer in the village? Truth of the matter is, they don’t even have much of a long career. The life expectancy of a clan less Shinobi is much lower in comparison to a Shinobi who belonged to a particular clan.”

“Also, since they don’t have any particular talent like the clans do, they are often overlooked for the missions. Even after the nine tail’s attack, when the requirements were lowered to expand the size of the forces, these problems persisted.”

Silence was the only answer which Naruto got for his explanation.

Various people have different expressions on their faces. Kakashi having been aware of these things for a long time already, did not get affected much. While Gai couldn’t found anything, which was wrong with the demon’s explanation. if it weren’t for his father already being a Shinobi, he would have never been accepted into the ranks.

Sasuke however, did not cared one bit about what Naruto have said. What does it matter if some clan less pawns died? They are all worthless anyway.

“So, did you understand, Sakura?” Naruto looked at his former teammate.

Sakura however, couldn’t stop thinking that if it weren’t for perhaps Sasuke’s clan, she would have never gotten far into the ninja ranks.

If she knew, Sasuke being the heir of the Uchiha clan, and Naruto being the Jinchuriki practically guaranteed that the moment she was selected in their team… she would have a stable career.

Of course, considering how much hate Naruto’s status as a Jinchuriki gotten him in the past, she never would have thought that way. Even after knowing that he was the prison for the nine tails.

“Ah, I love this expression of yours. Keep it that way, would you? It suits you.”

That got Sakura out of her befuddled state, causing the girl to glare at the demon in anger.

“Now, most of the time, nothing interesting happened. Other than my lessons, and few fights here and there, it was a normal orphan life.”

The world turned tinted around everyone. it was evident from looking around to the people, that some time has passed. The weather has changed. When they arrived here, it was spring. Now, it was the middle of winter.

Then, Naruto showed them the day when he actually turned the hare of the lady of orphanage Yoru, from black to gray.

Of course, she punished him for it, but aside from that, she didn’t do anything.

At that same day, Hiruzen visited the young demon container. Watching that memory, caused complicated emotions to appear in the demon’s eyes, but no one could see them because of his sunglasses.

“Due to the visits of the old man, I saw how much power means in the world.” The demon said softly.

“Thus, I decided that day… to become as powerful as that old man. If not more powerful than him.”

“Wait, you mean to say that you actually wished to become Hokage at one point, seriously?” Sasuke asked.

“Of course. But it all changed… when the academy started.”

This time, the time skip was more noticeable. It was winter few moments ago, now it was middle of summer and winter now, when the Shinobi academy started for the new children.

The most noticeable proof of passage of time was the child Naruto himself. He was now seven years old, and has just returned from the first day at academy in the afternoon.

Since he was now in rolled in the Ninja program, Naruto was allotted a small apartment. Naturally, no one wanted to share the building with the demon brat, so the entire building was emptied by the people in record time, squashing the hopes of Sarutobi in the process.

“Humph. Even if they ignore me at first, we’ll see how long they could keep not paying attention to me. Sooner or later, they’ll break.”

Then he went to his bag, and brought out the book from the academy’s library, which he managed to acquire before those devil kids could see him.

He had no doubts about it. if they saw him getting out of the library, they would have tried to damage the book in some way in an effort to get him in trouble.

“Worthless fools.” The child remarked within the small apartment. “Half of them would disappear by the time of graduation anyway.”

Although Sakura would have loved to say otherwise, she herself saw several girls with whom she was friends with, as well as her old enemy Ami leave the academy by the time they graduated.

Because of his secret lessons at the orphanage, he was much more advance in the skills of reading and writing.

Even then, his efforts weren’t acknowledged in the school of orphanage, which all the children under ten were required to attend.

One month passed. Now, it was getting clear to Naruto that the same thing will be happening to him in the academy as well.

While people watching did found his life somewhat interesting in a twisted way, (The fact that he would be executed after all of this which they convinced themselves, also helped.)

The Shinobi however found the book the child was reading the most fascinating thing.

Art of Seals: How to Learn the Most Deceptive Ninja arts.

Very few Shinobi actually take interest in seals, and by the time they are Chunin, they mostly learn only one thing:

How to create exploding tags, and seal objects.

But they never pay attention to the art of sealing like the child was doing. Even the demonstration at the academy does not attract much attention of the children. Yet, the child was reading, and completing the exercises on a book which most of older academy going children would never consider.

At the end of the book, there was a small project given, to test the knowledge of the person who was reading the book, to test how much did they learned, and how much knowledge did they retain.

At this point, the children were introduced to Chakra, which led to Naruto’s discovery of his control issues.

One day when he was sitting in his apartment, he would repeatedly try the leaf sticking exercise. One of these sessions led to his meeting with the demon sealed inside of him.

More like Naruto accidentally finding his way to the prison, while watching the great beast sleep.

The civilians started to feel faint by just watching the monster of their nightmares. While the Shinobi, (Well Jonin at least,) winced.

“So, this is the reason why they hate me.” The voice of the child echoed strangely in the damp prison.

All the Jonin saw that coming.

“Hahahahaha!” Naruto was busy wrangling the civilians. “you people are real wusses. Can’t even handle a memory?”

Ignoring the reaction of the civilians, the experienced Shinobi realize why did the things turned out the way they did.

Still, there weren’t things adding up. The child was not very hostile yet. What exactly was the event which turned him in to such a danger to his own village?

Few months later, Naruto hoped that he at least managed to get few people in his friend circle. Thus, at his birthday, he spent all the money which he saved, to hold a birthday party. Which… was attended by no one.

Then, they saw how one day he was sneaking off after performing a revenge on a shopkeeper who dared to overcharge him. After escaping from the angry mob, who only saw a blur, Naruto ended up in the Hokage tower’s room of records, where the records of the Shinobi families were kept.

Again, due to an accident, he ends up finding out about his heritage.

What Sasuke and Sakura saw, they couldn’t believe it.

“No, that is not possible! You’re not the son of a hero who saved this village!” the girl shrieked in disbelief.

“A hero whom I would like to remind you, I never met.”

“But,”

“But nothing. I have no obligation towards those people. I never knew them, nor I care to.”

Around this time, Sasuke’s whole clan was murdered. This time, he saw the changes taking place in himself. They were from the Naruto’s point of view, still he could see the changes in himself.

“Now, the moment which decided my path of life for me.”

One more year was past. Naruto was now eight years old, and was getting really good at his mask of an obliviously cheerful kid.

He also completed the book about the seals by now, so he did have more knowledge of seals than any of his classmates.

Just one month ago, they were shown a demonstration of how seals work, and how much useful they can be. While the kids were delighted by the effects of the seals, none of them actually expressed any interest on them, making Naruto scoff.

‘Fools! You shouldn’t trust anyone to design your own storage scrolls, what if they exploded one day?’ everyone heard the thoughts of the child who was watching this demonstration.

While the people observing all of this saw how much progress he was making with his control, it was not present anywhere in his academy.

“I don’t believe it.” Ino was saying. “You mean to say he never slipped, not even for once?”

“Of course, he didn’t.” Shikamaru told her, “He practically gave them what all the people expected from the bastard.”

Naruto was close enough for him to hear all of that. so, he decided to chime in, so he could enrage the Nara some more.

“You’re right.” Shikamaru’s eyes started to twitch. “But it took me a lot of effort to find the training manuals for the Shinobi who have large reserves from their childhood.”

“So what? Was the training of the humans being too much for you?” the Nara taunted.

“More like it was useless to me.” Was the calm answer of Naruto.

That response annoyed Shikamaru. He wanted to just strangle the demon with his shadow, but he remembered what happened the last time he tried that.

But one of the most important events was when Naruto decided to hit big targets, not for the revenge this time. He just wanted to see whether he could do it or not.

What better place than the council chamber during the meeting?

When Hokage is present, several veterans of war are also in council chamber… if he could hit them with his prank, (Which was relatively harmless in his opinion,) that will prove his skills. Not only to himself, but to the other ninjas as well.

It took real planning to get the time and day of the meeting out of Sarutobi. Naruto was not sure whether the old man was just screwing with him, or really wanted to be difficult. But thankfully, he did manage to do that, and decided to visit the place of attack before the day of war.

‘Man! Do the real ninjas feel like this before a big mission?’ the child shook his head. ‘No time to be distracted.’

So, he visited the council chamber, found a ventilation which was conveniently located for his attack, and left to prepare the supplies.

After all, the colors which he wanted to paint those people will not mix themselves.

Next day, he arrived in the Hokage tower, dodged the ANBU patrols, which were more alert than usual.

‘Maybe because of the security?’ they must be really important people if the security was this tight.

One more reason to go through with this.

Anyway, he snuck through the ventilation system, and arrived at the room. From his position, Naruto could see all the people present there. Along with Hiruzen, there were two more old men, one of them appeared to have gone through a grinder, a similarly old woman, a really big guy, next to him there was a person sitting, or snoozing Naruto couldn’t tell. While there was another man sitting next to the big guy, who had the different shade of blond hair than Naruto.

There was another woman with a dog, a guy who was looking like he had a hangover, (Naruto did know how those people look like. After all, they were the easiest to fool during those moments.) though his white colored eyes were glaring at the people.

There were also some more Jonin here and there, some of them really attention grabbing, some of them disappearing in the background.

“Man, we are a colorful bunch.” Tsume the clan head of the Inuzuka clan commented.

All the clan heads after hearing that sighed.

“Really Tsume, you couldn’t wait?” Inoichi sighed.

“Shhhh! This is the good part.” Shikaku quieted them.

“Why?” the Yamanaka questioned.

“Because unless my memories were erased, I would remember something like this.” Shikaku said, while looking at Inoichi accusingly.

“I didn’t tamper with your memories, promise!” sweating a little, the blond man promised.

“Really?” Choza rumbled.

“Honestly, you just do it for once, and they’ll never forgive you for it.” the Yamanaka grumbled.

It was very amusing for Naruto to see all these people bicker like this. But really, the important thing was coming up.

Thankfully, they managed to focus at the right time. Because then he would have to shut them up. Because Naruto couldn’t emphasize it enough, there was an important point coming up! (At least important to him.)

The young Jinchuriki was just about to unleash his supply of color, that a voice spoke and caused him to halt.

“I would like to raise an issue before this council.” The man who had gone through the grinder said.

Sarutobi sighed. “What is it, Danzo?”

Naruto stopped on his tracks. He wanted to see how these people operate in general. He was sure that he would have plenty of time to cause the havoc for which he came here.

“I would like to revisit the issue number 966. The suggestion of turning one Naruto Uzomaki into a weapon.”

Naruto couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The child was more than familiar with the concept of a Shinobi being a weapon for their village, but he knew that in this matter, the term “Weapon” has an entirely different meaning.

The type of weapon they want him to turn into, he wouldn’t cooperate with them no matter what.

But he decided to watch the reaction of the old man, sure that he would deny such a request.

Sighing, Sarutobi said the same words, the words he felt he had said hundreds of times already.

“and I assume that you have more logical reasons, just like I have told you countless times already?”

Danzo’s lips twitched a little. No one noticed, but Sarutobi did. Not letting his amusement show, the old man started to present his reasons.

“Very well. The biggest reason is, the child needs to control his emotions.” Listening to this, Naruto did not have any problem so far.

He very well knew that his emotions were the reasons why he got in the trouble half of the time.

“Because the continued isolation by the general population will cause his emotional security to be compromised. You do know the consequences of that, don’t you?”

Danzo was most worried in this regard. What if an enemy decided to show some kindness to the child, and he decided to side with that enemy? It was very important that the people who end up in the military, (As the fate of that child,) have some loyalty with their homeland. Otherwise, it would be like bringing up a snake who would bite them one day.

The old man nodded.

“Second, if he spends more time among the Shinobi, who despite their prejudices, do not hold the child in contempt, we can anchor him by those relations. He would be less likely to betray us.” This was the two-step plan of Danzo.

First get Naruto acclimated among the Shinobi population, and then keep the child loyal through those relations.

“But you do intend to subject him to your training methods, don’t you?” Sarutobi asked, very well knowing what those methods do to the people.

“Yes.” Was the simple answer of the Darkness of Shinobi.

“Then I have to deny. Your training completely strips the people of their emotions who go through it. and in the coming years, the child will need those emotions.”

Danzo didn’t argue. After all, Hiruzen did said to present his reasons, and if he was not satisfied by them, there was not any point in arguing anymore.

But Naruto saw entirely different thing that day.

He saw how he was just an asset, to be used, and disregarded, to be hated.

All this at just the whim of these people.

The child returned without accomplishing his task day, throwing the colors he prepared carelessly on the streets… which ended up hitting the caravan of a noble.

Returning into his apartment, (Which was surprising for him, he wasn’t caught.) Naruto meditated on the events he saw this day.

“I always wanted to be powerful, causing me to covet the position of Hokage.”

To the people who were watching, it was a sign of the true intelligence of child Naruto, they get to witness his advance vocabulary in comparison to any eight years old child.

“But now, now I will seek the power… for freedom. There will be no one who will manipulate me for their gain, no one who will hold my leash, no one who will wield me like a puppet.”

The world stopped, as if a movie was paused in the middle of a scene.

“You all understand now?”

Naruto got various reactions. Some of them indifferent, mostly hate.

“I will not give in. but now, you will witness my power, and my conviction. After this, I continued to do back breaking training myself, until I was put on the team seven. Then, when I escaped from Jiraiya, something happened which all you morons should watch.”

The scene shifted. Instead of Leaf village, now all the people were standing in a small town.

Naruto was now in the middle of his teens, and the resentment which was just a shadow during his childhood, can be seen clearly on his face now.

It was really jarring for team seven, (Including Sasuke,) to see their happy go lucky teammate like this. Perhaps now the true reality of the situation was starting to dawn on them.

But the scene started to get even more weirder, as Kisame and Itachi appeared.

They weren’t there to capture any Jinchuriki. Instead, both of the Shinobi were relaxing after the mercenary work they did for Akatsuki.

But Itachi saw Naruto. Back then, his whiskers were the biggest give away for his identity. Thus, when the Uchiha saw the Jinchuriki unprotected and Jiraiya nowhere in sight, Itachi tried to draw Kisame’s attention towards other things.

A job of a spy just never ends.

but It was inevitable that Kisame’s attention would go to the boy. As soon as that happened, a brawl broke out in the middle of the town.

Naruto not wanting to draw more attention than he already had attracted, escaped in to the forests surrounding the town.

Once Kisame has seen the boy, he was not about to let go of him so easily. Before, the only reason he survived was because of Jiraiya. But the toad Sannin was not around to protect the little menace anymore.

Watching the battle was surprising for the Shinobi, and unbelievable for the civilians.

“It is impossible!” one man said, who was by the looks appeared to be a merchant, “Itachi was a prodigy. And the fact that blue man is his partner, he definitely has to be impressive. There is no way that a worthless brat like you can keep up with them!”

Naruto seeing that many people were nodding in the support, said, “Oh yeah? You can believe that thirteen years old slaughtered his clan full of Shinobi. But you can’t believe that someone who did the back-breaking training, and put a lot of effort in becoming strong, couldn’t keep up with the said prodigy?”

“But the training can only take you so far, experience matters as well. Something which you lack.” Kakashi cleared the logic of the people.

“Admittedly, you would be correct. But I did not just spend my time away from Jiraiya running around. Many Shinobi tried to kill me at that point, and I’ve got a lot of battle experience as a result.”

“Still, I wouldn’t deny that I couldn’t kill Itachi and Kisame at that time. But it did not mean that I was week either.”

Itachi was wondering. What could he do to stop the boy? If he could knock him out somehow, then he could do something about Kisame as well, and return the container to Jiraiya.

He decided to use Tsukuyomi.

Realizing his partner’s intentions, Kisame said, “Itachi, no. Your eyesight is getting worse already, don’t use that technique!”

“We don’t have any choice. The boy is too strong to subdue otherwise.” Which was an unexpected development for the Uchiha.

The control of his Chakra, the finesse of his technique, were all so contrary to the reports Itachi knew about the Jinchuriki.

So, he activated the Mangekyo, and stared in to the future demon’s eyes.

“Tsukuyomi.” Itachi whispered.

Few seconds later, the illusion was broken, and Itachi was sent flying by the kick of Naruto, while he suffered the backlash dew to his technique breaking apart.

Kisame cursed. He knew that the boy was strong, but this strong?

Not only that, Itachi waisted his eyesight for nothing. taking advantage of the situation, Naruto escaped, while Kisame tended to Itachi.

“I’ve got no choice.” That is what he would say anyone who asked him why he was caring for his partner. But in truth, he didn’t want to leave Itachi anyway.

Return main;

* * *

}//End flashback.

“Now, do you understand my reasons?”

Naruto did not ask this question to the people. He asked Kakashi, and only Kakashi.

“Yes, yes I do.”

Then, the demon looked up to the sky, and asked, “Is that enough?”

There was no reply, making everyone think that the impending arrival of his death has caused the demon to lose his grip of reality.

“Great then. Also, good riddance.” Saying that, Naruto started to walk towards the exit of the stadium, as if nothing was wrong with the world.

“And, where exactly do you think you’re going?” Hamura the council member couldn’t keep himself quiet.

“Oh? Simple. I am leaving.” Was the nonchalant answer of the demon.

“Naruto Uzomaki,” Tsunade spoke out then. “In the light of the evidence presented to me,” Naruto snorted at that line, “There is no doubt in my mind that you are guilty towards the Leaf village. Your sentence is death, to be carried out immediately. Let the people whom you have killed have some peace.” The Hokage concluded.

“Peace, it always comes to that.” he muttered.

Around Naruto, several ANBU appeared.

“I must warn you guys, you really shouldn’t do this.” He said as a way of warning.

The ANBU did not listen, instead they surrounded the demon and prepared to carry out the orders of the Hokage.

“Very well. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

Yamato appeared in the hands of Naruto, and in a blinding show of speed, the demon started to slash and stab the Shinobi surrounding him.

In just four seconds, the entire squad of ANBU was turned in to the pile of limbs.

“Outrageous!” Kaheru, the old council woman couldn’t contain herself.

“Are you looking to die, boy!” was the offended remark of the Hamura.

“That is a stupid question old man. You already assigned me a death sentence, what does it matter whether I kill few of your Shinobi in the process?”

With a snap of his fingers, Danzo summoned his secret ANBU division. If they failed to kill the demon now, he will need an escape.

“Kill him,” he ordered.

“No.” the Hokage said, “We will need more Shinobi for the evacuation process. Use them there.”

Not seeing anything wrong with her order, Danzo nodded.

“Your orders are changed, go evacuate the civilians.”

The root ninjas left, to follow the orders which they have been given.

But Tsunade was not happy. This was not how it was supposed to go. They would make an illusion of killing Naruto, while the real one will be taken to a secret facility. Then, he would be kept there until his mind was broken, and then they would use his assets, his influence for the Leaf, and in the case of attack or war, his strength, until his death.

Meanwhile, Naruto was about to be surrounded again. But this time, not by ANBU, instead of his former classmates.

“Naruto, stop right there.” Sakura said bravely.

She totally did not fear the demon, no fear at all.

“Tch. As if you hold any authority to stop me. Go back to crawling to Sasuke or Tsunade.”

“I am here, loser.” Was the arrogant response of Uchiha.

“Then go back to crawling at the foot of Orochimaru for more power or something.” Naruto used the best barb he could.

Sasuke’s face morphed into the pure fury.

But then, a voice stopped them.

“Naruto, please stop.”

The demon turned around, to see his first ever teacher, the scarred Chunin Iruka looking at him imploringly.

“I am sure lady Tsunade would rethink her decision, please surrender.” Said Iruka, tears appearing within his eyes.

“Ah, it is a good thing that you’ve showed up on your own.” Was the relaxed response of the demon.

“What?” the teacher asked in confusion.

Pointing his index finger at the forehead of Iruka, Naruto whispered “Death Beam.”

“No sensei, dodge!” came the warning of all the people whom he taught.

Still, the warning was too late. The beam struck the Chunin right at his forehead, destroying his Chunin headband, and piercing the brain of Iruka, killing him instantly.

“Y-you monster, you realize what you have done!” Neji said furiously.

‘Ah, such a good actor. They both would do good in a theater.’ Kabuto thought.

“You killed the man who trusted on you? It is official, there is nothing redeeming about you.” Said others in support of Neji.

“Actually, I killed him because I didn’t want to see him crushed by what I am about to do. Really, this was the kindest thing I could think of for the kindness he showed me.”

All the Chunin were horror struck. What kind of twisted thinking would someone had to have the thought process like that?

Then, even more strange thing happened. A portal opened right next to the body of fallen Iruka, and his body was sucked into it.

“What did you do to his body!” seeing that everyone was basically reduced to frothing from the mouth dew to the actions of demon, Shino decided to ask.

“Oh nothing. once I escape from here, I will give him the proper burial.”

“You think we can’t do that?” everyone said, even more angered.

“Feh. You people are not entitled to even see his face.”

Then, the demon teleported in the flash of gold, appearing right next to the surprised Tsunade.

The cold edge of Yamato was on the Hokage’s neck, while the unyielding voice of the demon said right next from her.

“You’ve got two options. You let me walk out of the village, otherwise suffer the consequences.”

“Sounds like pretty clear case of if else to me.” Yamato joked.

“Too bad no computer can process this type of statement.” But the demon was thinking, ‘but any reasonable human who was attached with their life should.’

Ignoring the ramblings of the demon and his sword, Tsunade asked, “What makes you think you will be able to walk out of here?”

“Don’t delude yourself in thinking that I surrendered and let myself be imprisoned just because I thought because you will be able to restrain me, or you have the strength to keep me as a prisoner.”

“Then why…”

“Simple. Because of some stupid rules, I have to do that.” the demon did not say what those rules were, causing the Hokage to ask…

“What sort of rules?” Tsunade asked shrewdly. ‘maybe we can use them for our advantage.’ She thought.

“Like I would tell you. No this though, you won’t be containing me, or executing me for that matter. not at least today.”

Spying something from the corner of her eye, Tsunade retorted, “You will demand, and we’ll give in? that is your biggest illusion.”

Orochimaru’s Kusanagi sword came sailing at the demon, making Naruto dodge.

But that moment was enough for Tsunade to get away from the perilous situation.

Naruto scowled. “Orochimaru, go back to your dreary base or something. If you like, go fawn over Uchiha’s body for all I care.”

This time, it was the snake sage who was scowling.

Then, Jiraiya appeared. “We won’t let you get away, Naruto.”

“Oh please. you couldn’t stop me when I was just a human teenager.”

“You—you took me by surprise!” Jiraiya protested.

“Isn’t that the point of being a ninja?” Yamato couldn’t help but chime.

Not wanting to answer that, Jiraiya couldn’t do anything other than fuming.

When Naruto tried to move for the exit of the stadium, Jiraiya blocked his path. In an exchange of blows, Naruto seemingly came short, and took a step back.

“You are my responsibility, my failure.” The Sannin said heavily.

“Don’t beet yourself for my decisions. You saw it yourself; you barely had a presence in my life. You can’t possibly hold yourself responsible.” Naruto said, personally not understanding why Jiraiya was taking it so seriously.

After all, just as the demon have said, the man barely had any presence within his life. Why would it leave any impact on him?

“Strange that you would try to assure your enemy.” Yamato observed.

“Enemy or not, I won’t deny the fact that whatever time he spent with me, he treated me very well.” Was the prompt answer of Naruto.

Still trying to get pass through the Sannin, Naruto engaged with Jiraiya once more.

But Orochimaru came from behind to take advantage of the presumed distraction of the Naruto.

Fresh from the recent exchange with Jiraiya, Naruto was rather high stringed. Thus, when Orochimaru executed his surprise attack, Yamato appeared in Naruto’s hand, and he promptly sliced the snake Sannin into small pieces.

“Oops, I hope he didn’t die. I’ve yet to get his ring.” Not to mention, he didn’t know where he hid the ring.

Luckily for Naruto, Orochimaru crawled out of his dissected body, and once more became whole.

“I swear. That is the most disgusting way of regenerating I have ever had of displeasure of witnessing!” Naruto hollered.

“Yes, to think he is my teammate.” Even Jiraiya couldn’t keep the disgust from his voice.

“Don’t you start. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had something same!” Naruto turned on his former mentor.

Jiraiya, as if acknowledging the point, hung his head in shame.

Orochimaru tried to struck Naruto again. This time, Naruto used the same Tijutsu technique as he used when he fought Lee when he returned from his secret trip without Jiraiya.

Naruto getting out of the way of Orochimaru’s attack, and appearing next to the snake Sannin, grabbed him.

He quickly struck on his pressure points, and throws his paralyzed body to incoming Jiraiya.

‘What sort of style is that?’ Orochimaru wondered, he was feeling as if someone not only paralyzed him, but injected venom within his veins, which was feeling like lava.

Orochimaru collided with Jiraiya’s midsection, making the tall man stumble. Taking advantage of that, Naruto appeared in front of Jiraiya.

Naruto used the same style again, striking Jiraiya’s body with the fingers curled like a fang of a snake. Jiraiya tried to dodge or block, tried to redirect the blows, but nothing worked.

Soon, he was sent flying, in a same state as Orochimaru.

Naruto kicked the nearby Orochimaru for good measure just at the same location of Jiraiya.

Both of the Sannin landed next to each other.

“You’re dead, brat!” Tsunade said, while coming up from the air, with her signature heal drop.

“Really? It is as if you completely don’t have the understanding of what being subtle means.”

Bracing himself, Naruto grabbed Tsunade by her extended leg, and started to swing her around.

“You think it might be a secret fetish of her?” Yamato wondered out loud.

Throwing the slug Sannin, Naruto answered, “I doubt it. besides, there is no point in fantasizing about her.”

“Why? From by looks, she is a total milf!” Yamato couldn’t think any reason why his wielder would think like that about the voluptuous Hokage.

Naruto sighed. “I am not going to even wonder how did you learned that term despite being trapped for four thousand years in a temple. But I will tell you, that look of her, it is fake.”

“R-really?” Yamato said, with a tone of someone who was promised a something impressive… only to find out it was all a lie.

“Yes. Beneath that illusion, she looks like a woman who is much older than her age.”

“Aww, that totally brings down the mood you know?”

Tsunade did not land very far. Thus, she was hearing every single comment of the conversation between the sword and its wielder.

With a shout of rage, she launched herself at Naruto again. “Shuuuuuuuuutttttttt! Uuuuuuupppppp!”

This time, it was nothing like a surprise heal drop. Naruto easily dodged and blocked Tsunade’s blows, which he saw coming because of her agitated state.

“Really? All that strength, and no technique? Looks like the praise for your skills were overblown.” But secretly, Naruto was impressed.

Though perhaps over the years of wandering and a glorified desk job may have dulled her sense of combat, but Tsunade was still proving to be a challenge. Just not at the level of Itachi. That man was a monster.

That caused more rage flailing as Naruto like to call it.

So far, pissing people off, and robbing them their sense of thought has proven to be a wonderful tactic.

After a while, he got bored. So, Naruto decided to put her down. With few directed blows of snake, which felt like they landed with an extra sound of ‘thump!’ once more, another of the Sannin was at the mercy of Naruto Uzomaki.

“Really, look at you now. You used to be a terrifying figure, at least that is what I gleamed from you’re file when I snuck to the record room and read the file on the Sannin.”

The slug princess wanted to retaliate, but her body was not listening to her for some reason. Perhaps it has to do with the strange style the demon was using?

Still, if she could only get her palms moving, she would be able to heal herself, then she would teach this brat a lesson.

“In my naïve days, when I heard that you were going to be offered the position of Hokage, I thought that once I actually formed a close bond with you, it will come really handy for my future political games. But then, I find out that this woman, who is so afraid of the blood… couldn’t be use for anyone.”

Tsunade tried to ignore what Naruto was saying… she really did. But it is not easy to ignore the words which struck at your heart.

“Thus, seeing that I have a talent for inspiring people, –Yes, I did know about that, – when Orochimaru and Kabuto decided to kill you and Jiraiya, I did risk my life for you.”

Tsunade was now trembling visibly, both from the effort of trying to move her palms, as well as from the words of Naruto.

“Yet!” suddenly, his voice twisted in to barely contained rage.

“You sent me on a suicide mission after an unstable narcissist along with a moron of a leader!” Naruto punctuated this point with kicking the downed Tsunade.

He grabbed her, causing Tsunade to panic. “No problem. It was very useful in the end.” Throwing her right in the direction of Jiraiya and Orochimaru, Naruto continued on towards the exit of the stadium.

Unfortunately for the demon, his actions will come back to byte him later. He should have thrown the healer in a different direction… or killed her.

Unaware of his oversight, Naruto exited the stadium… where he was confronted by the entire graduation class of himself, plus team Gai.

Smiling widely, the demon spoke.

“Ah, it is so nice when one’s friends decide to send someone off, wishing them well and all.” Assuming a pose of someone who was about to go on a worldly journey, Naruto said.

“No one is sending you anywhere, Naruto.” Shikamaru said, having assumed the leadership along with Neji because of his Jonin rank.

Though he still would have to obey the orders of Hyuga, the position in which the Nara has been not for a while.

All of this was obvious from the way they all were standing, so just like a gracious demon, he would take advantage of the clashing egos.

‘It should be fun… for me at least. Unless they all are secretly masochistic.’ Naruto shuttered at the thought.

“Really? And here I thought that you’ve even brought a gift for me, and words which say, ‘Never darken our doorstep again.’”

“You’re right. After we’re done with you, you will never darken any doorstep ever again.” In the terms of clever insults, the Nara counted that one quite high.

“Really Nara? You should not make threats when you have a higher ranked member than yourself.” The demon taunted.

“You!” Shikamaru fell for it.

“Or is it you chafe under someone else’s command?” the demon continued the taunting.

Realizing the situation, Neji took a step forward.

“I am placing you under arrest, Uzomaki. Surrender now.” The Hyuga said frostily.

“Wait, didn’t you hear the orders of the Hokage? He is to be executed immediately.” Shikamaru argued.

“Yes. But his execution is not for us to decide.” The Hyuga said in a same tone.

“As amusing as it is watching you bicker, I really don’t have time for this.” The demon said.

Moving forward, Naruto immediately sparked all the Chunin, and one Jonin, into action.

Then, more cavalry arrived. Basically, the clan heads of the most of the Chunin present in front of Naruto, while Hinata was already present.

“Get back young ones, we will take care of him.” Choza said.

“For that, you’re going to die.” Naruto said, not at all happy to be dealt like a pesky children’s nightmare.

“The only thing which is going to die is you!” Tsume the Inuzuka head bared her fangs.

“Oooh. I am so scared, whatever should I do?” the demon even managed to fake a shiver.

“Maybe use the Fire Blast to clear the path?” Yamato suggested.

“You know what? It is a great idea!” with great enthusiasm, the demon started to do exactly as his sword suggested.

Charging the attack, and making the kanji for fire appear in the process, Naruto let go of the Fire Blast.

“Everyone, out of the way!” Neji said promptly.

the warning of Hyuga came in time, all the Leaf twelve dodged the attack. But now, the blast divided itself, and was now homing into their location.

Everyone dealt it in their own ways with the homing attack. Neji used his Hyuga defensive techniques, Shikamaru diverted the attack into somewhere far away, Lee simply punched the attack after opening the third gate, causing Naruto to sweat drop.

“Seriously, that guy is insane.” Naruto muttered.

“You must stop this unyouthfulness immediately!” Lee said, while the force of the blast ruffled his hare.

‘Sigh, I knew that he was going to say something like that.’ Naruto thought.

“Whatever.” Charging another attack, Naruto prepared to clear the path.

“Hold it!” a voice said.

But dew to this voice, everyone stopped what they were doing.

Out of the nowhere, Might Gai appeared, nearly taking off the demon’s head with his dynamic entry.

“God damn you and your entry!” Naruto said, not at all happy with the kick which he nearly received on his face.

If it was successful, the demon would have been not able to show his face around for at least a month!

Thankfully for Naruto, he got away right in time.

“I cannot let my students face you alone.” Gai said, protectively.

“Oh yeah? Now if only Kakashi was here,”

“You are not worthy of being called the student of my rival!” the Jonin immediately said.

“Seriously. Go preach to someone who cares, like that Uchiha for example?”

“But unlike you, he is still standing with his comrades.” Gai said, giving a nod of approval in the Sasuke’s direction.

“You should ask what he really feels like, instead of making assumptions.”

“I will end you here and now!” not listening to a word of Naruto, Gai declared with a heroic pose to boot.

“You’re welcome to try.”

Then, one after another, Gai started to open his gates.

“Today, if I have to open all eight of the gates of my body, even then I will not hesitate! Third gate, open!”

‘Naruto, kill him now!’ came the urgent warning of Yamato through the mental link.

Usually, if Yamato gave the warning like that, Naruto would ignore it, and say in reply ‘I wish to see how far he could go.’ Or something like that.

But ever since he faced with Itachi, the demon had become more cautious in these matters.

‘If he unleashed all of his power, you won’t have a chance, so kill him now when he is not at the full power!’ Yamato said, trying to convince his wielder.

Thus, the demon took the warning seriously, and after extending his index finger, he gathered the energy in a form of a beam, and fired.

“Death Beam.” Naruto intoned.

This was the same attack which killed captain Yamato when Naruto became a demon around few months ago, as well as Iruka.

“No, Gai sensei!” Lee tried to get in the way of the attack.

The Jonin was still opening his gates, he was nowhere near ready to dodge or block.

Alas, Lee failed to reach for his mentor in the time. the beam pierced the forehead of Might Gai, and before he could open the sixth gate, he fell down dead.

“Alas, the sacrifices which one have to make because of not being invincible.” Naruto said.

Just like any other cliché show, the demon would have loved to square against a fully powered up opponent, and after a struggle, beating them.

but the world disliked those stories, thus none of that happened.

‘A golden opportunity!’ Neji thought to himself.

He was getting tired of acting so much. In his humbled opinion, he deserved to depart the stage, and get some rest… until the next act starts.

“You bastard, you killed my sensei. Prepare to die!” the Hyuga lost his composure.

“What a legendary line! You should definitely get an award… if there was one.” The demon said, winking.

Neji rushed headlong towards the demon, forgetting everything about his Jonin training.

“No stop Hyuga!” the Nara said, “I understand your pain better than anyone. But you must not lose you’re temper.”

Disregarding Shikamaru’s warning, Neji still continued to rush at Naruto.

“It is so easy for you to say. Not everyone is like you, you god damn weakling!!” the Hyuga said, cackling inwardly.

‘Man! I am good or something!’

Shikamaru felt as if his heart was stabbed with several kunai.

Reaching close to Naruto, Neji prepared himself to unleash hell upon the demon.

But said demon disappeared from the front of Hyuga, appeared behind him, and kicked him right at his spine, sending him flying outside of the stadium and crashing into a building.

Beneath the rubble, he tunneled and disappeared into the secret hideout to watch the proceeding events.

Meanwhile, Lee was engaging in the close quarters combat with the demon, while Tenten was providing the long-range support.

Shikamaru was directing the whole effort, the Nara was also getting some help from his father. He also through gestures, was telling Lee and Tenten to corner Naruto in a particular area covered with a wall, with the sun at the opposite side, which formed barely seen shadows.

‘If father and me can trap him even for a moment, we can crush him with the strength of Choji and his father, or take control of the bastard with Ino and her father’s help.’ The Nara refined his plan in his head.

If they were not going against him, Naruto may have been impressed by the intergenerational coordination between the three families.

But now, he was looking forward to see the Nara’s face when he realizes that his strategy failed him… again.

“For the Gai sensei, I will defeat you with the burning power of my soul!” was the fiery declaration of Lee, the only thing which was lacking was the real flames around the teen’s body for the full effect.

“Stop.” Naruto said.

“What?” not understanding such a strange statement from his enemy, Lee stopped right in the middle of his rush, stumbling a little. Yet, the demon did not take advantage of it, instead continues the conversation.

“Stop living on someone else’s shadow.”

“But I—” Lee’s protest was cut short.

“You know why people call you Gai’s clone behind your back?” Naruto asked, to see whether Lee was just as hard headed as his name, like a rock.

Lee couldn’t believe it.

Of course, the teen knew what people called him, but he never thought that the demon would bring that point in the battle.

“Because you try to be the carbon copy of him. Stop living like him, and start living like yourself.” Was the devilish advice from the demon.

“You won’t shake my determination.” Lee, however held on his belief tightly.

“Fine. It is useless to talk to you anyway.” Naruto sneered.

With a blazing speed which Lee did not see from the demon yet, he appeared close to the Gai’s pupal, and grabbed him in a strange looking joint lock.

Wrestling him down, which Lee was unable to resist, Naruto got him on the ground. He puts one foot on Lee’s upper back and pulled both of his arms, pressing down with all the strength of his legs simultaneously.

(Soundtrack: Death Note: Kyrie.)

“Gaaaaa!” it was clear from that scream how much pain was Lee in.

Lee’s body was great for exchanging rapid strikes with opponents, but grappling and joint locks were something which require a lot of strength which his body could not produce. This was why he was also not able to resist when Naruto wrestled him to the ground.

“Ah yes. It is too bad that we aren’t anywhere near a beech, I would love to go surfing.”

“Gaaa… ahhh!”

despite trying to hold on to the pain, to not scream so his opponent would not get any satisfaction from it, Lee couldn’t hold on anymore.

Tenten was also unable to assist Lee, since Naruto was holding him, the chances were high that the demon might use her teammate as a shield for her projectiles.

“That is, it. scream. I always hated you, you know? Someone who couldn’t form Chakra gets accepted in the Ninja program, yet, I who had more Chakra than I knew what to do with, I was rejected again and again.” as Naruto was speaking, he was pulling harder and harder the Lee’s arms, grinding his foot on his back for more leverage.

“If I’ve been given proper training, then I wouldn’t have trouble harnessing the enormous power at my disposal. Perhaps you also wouldn’t be on the ground as well, gasping in pain.”

The pain was becoming unbearable for lee. Both from the tightening hold of Naruto, as well as his words.

“Yet, here you are, not even capable of creating a simple clone, yet managed to pass!” after saying that, Naruto grinded his foot harder on Lee’s back.

“Ghhhhhaaa!”

Two loud snaps accompanied Lee’s screams as his shoulders, unable to take more pressure from the demon’s hold, snapped.

“Well, it was still fine, I guess. I didn’t end up becoming you moron’s weapon.” Naruto said, all the traces of hatred gone from his voice.

Still, he kicked the half unconscious Lee into the far away building.

Then he glared at his terrified and enraptured audience. “Don’t worry, you guys are the next.”

(End soundtrack.)

Naruto next moved on to Tenten, while Shikamaru tried to grab him with his shadow.

“Looks like you have forgotten my lesson, Nara.” Of course, Naruto was referring to the lesson which he taught the Nara back near the fire temple.

A chill went up in Shikamaru’s spine, and he stopped trying to use the shadow on the demon. He also advised his father to no longer use his shadow technique.

Because he did not want to be controlled again, like he was in the mission where Asuma died.

Tenten was trying to keep away Naruto with her ranged weapons, but much to the annoyance and anger of the girl, the demon was just swatting them aside with Yamato.

Finally, when Naruto was at the close range, she summoned a staph to engage with him.

“Too bad that I possibly killed Neji, I would have loved him to watch this.”

Tenten bristled. “Don’t you have any shame?”

“What is to be shamed about? We are killers, in light of that, I hardly think shame matters.” Was the impeccable logic in Naruto’s opinion.

Effortlessly batting her strikes, Naruto did not let her land any hit on himself.

“Hm, perhaps you should have pursuit a career in weapon based close combat, instead of wasting all that metal?”

Not even using his sword at this point, Naruto gave Tenten a uppercut, sending her floating in the air.

In a blazing show of speed, he appeared close to Tenten, and pummeled her in the air for at least thirty seconds. Then he let her drop, by this time, the weapon user was not in any condition to fight anymore.

“Dammit!” Sasuke, who was silent so far, cursed. “He’s dropping us one by one. If you’ve got any plan Nara, then it is time to implement it, or I am going to fight him myself.”

Shikamaru gritted his teeth, while Naruto continued taunting them.

“Ah, I devastated one team already.” then he looked towards the team ten, “And accidentally killed one squad’s sensei, I wonder who’s going to be next?”

Naruto kept walking, not knowing that he was willingly stepping into the trap of Nara.

“Of course, I really don’t get it, why do they need instructors after they become Chunin. I get if they are attached after so many life and death situations, but still…”

“Maybe because you never had a teacher like them?” came the unexpected reply of Yamato.

Usually, Yamato’s statements were amusing for Naruto. Sometimes, annoying as well, but never they made him felt that his heart was just pierced by an arrow.

“Ah, did someone shot me with arrow in my heart?” despite what he was feeling, the demon said this as if commenting about the weather.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” the sword apologized.

“Nah, don’t worry about it much.” The demon assured, understanding that his sword wouldn’t hurt him deliberately.

“Choji, now!” Shikamaru ordered.

Naruto looked up. both the akimichi clan head and the heir were attacking him after getting the size of a boss summon.

Father and son team tried to press the demon down, they used their full strength so they could squash this nightmare, so next step of the plan wouldn’t be necessary.

Yet, they couldn’t do that. Naruto was holding both of them by his hands, but the ground beneath him was splintering dew to the force. If this continues, he might end up berried up to his waist.

Smirking in satisfaction, Shikamaru signaled Ino and her father to begin their part.

“What do you think you can do with that? it is fruitless.” Straining to hold them off, the demon commented.

“It is not.” Lord Akimichi answered.

“What? What do you mean by arg!” the question of Naruto was suddenly interrupted by a blinding headache.

“Naruto? What is it?” Yamato asked, alarmed.

“I can’t say— arg! Fuuck.” The demon grunted and cursed dew to the pain, but did not yielded in the slightest.

Naruto was experiencing a splitting headache, something which he had never experienced before, aside from the times he suffered a concussion.

Then, Shikamaru and Shikaku, the last of the father and son team, extended their shadow. The shadows, taking advantage of the position of Naruto, as well as the giant size Akimichi clan head and heir, sneaked slowly upward in Naruto’s body.

“Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrg! Enough.” growling in annoyance, the demon said.

In the sudden flames, which were so surprising that they ended up scorching the hands of Choza and Choji, Naruto disappeared.

Seeing the fallen sword, (Which fell down from Naruto’s hand when he was trying to hold on both giants,) Shikamaru yelled…

“Hurry, grab that sword.”

Before he even knew it, Choji was leaning down to grab Yamato. But before his fingers could even touch the sword, Yamato disappeared.

“What?” the Akimichi said in surprise.

A squelching sound and gurgling noise caused Choji to turn around.

To see the horrified faces of his teammate and their fathers, and Naruto removing Yamato from Choza’s chest.

“Nooooo! Father!”

“Oh, stop yelling so loudly. I still have a headache.” Naruto said grumpily.

“I—I will kill you, you monster!” Choji said, not experiencing so much rage within his life ever before.

“Oh, I am a monster now? You should know that you all had a hand in making me what I am today.”

Then, Naruto posed as if he received an award, and he was giving his acceptance speech on the stage.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you. Die!” losing control of his emotions in a wonderful fashion, the clan heir attacked.

“Choji, no!” Shikamaru tried to warn his friend.

The warning came too late. Still, Choji was able to dodge the sudden stab.

Demonstrating that his strange hand to hand combat technique was not limited to empty handed exchange, Yamato swerved from left to right, (Where Naruto was directing him originally, for targeting Choji’s heart.)

But now, the target was not the left side of Choji’s chest. Instead, Naruto sliced his right hand from forearm. The hand made a ‘Thud!’ sound when it fell down.

“Aaaahhh!” Choji fell down clutching his stump of a right arm.

“No, Choji!” Shikamaru said, horrified from the things happening around him, and his inability to stop it.

“Oh, don’t worry. You have more worrying things to think about.” Naruto said, right behind from Shikaku.

“Father—” Shikamaru tried to warn his father.

He tried to make a dash there to save his life, or do anything possible to stop what was about to take place.

In a swift slice, Shikaku was cut down, not managing to defend himself.

But he failed.

Inoichi tried to run interference with Naruto’s mind again, but this time he was prepared. The man suffered the backlash dew to the failure of his technique, knocking him out instantly.

Shikamaru’s head was turning around from left to right. Everyone who helped him was either knocked out, or was dead.

“Anyway,” Naruto made a show of reading a speech from his pamphlet, “Oh yeah.”

“So, all of you had a hand in the creation of Naruto Uzomaki as he is in the present. All of you hated me enough that I thought of this insane plan to make spill the nine tails the process of becoming a demon.”

“Once that happened, I actually planned the events which would put me close to death, because it was the requirement that if I wish to become a demon without dying and going through the afterlife process,” at this point, all the people were confused, but Naruto continued on.

“I must come close to death at least three times, and survive. First by was by the hands of Kabuto. Second was by the hands of Sasuke.”

The Uchiha, who actually didn’t do anything at this point in Shikamaru’s opinion, smirked.

“And third time, again by Uchiha.”

“What?” the said Uchiha asked.

“Oh, don’t you remember how you gave me a piledriver without even warning me? That broke my neck. Thankfully, my future demon essence gave me enough of a chance that my body was healed, and my brain started to work again.” By his ‘Future demon essence,’ Naruto was referring to the nine tails, who healed his injuries in an effort to stay alive.

Sasuke’s face twisted in a grimace.

“Then, when you stabbed me with the Chidori and left me to die, before Kakashi reached me, I was dead again. Yet again, the nine tails proved to be useful to me. If I ever met its spirit, I will surely thank it.”

At that point, Sasuke and Naruto were both subjected to gawking by the nearby clan heads, who were watching everything which took place by this point.

But the Inuzukas controlled their emotions, and Kiba snarled…

“So what? If we can made you, then we can break you as well!”

Naruto just gave the Inuzuka a lopsided grin, which pissed the wild ninja more.

“Think this is funny?”

“Kiba, let’s show this upstart demon that we’re not the people with whom you can mess with!”

“Yeah, let’s do it, mom.” Howling, both of them transformed into their beast forms.

“Say,” the demon spoke then, “You did know Kushina, right?”

“So, what if I did?” was the growling answer of Tsume.

“Nothing.”

Naruto, in actuality, wanted to say a lot of things, but refrained from doing so. It’s not like these people would tell him anyway.

Besides, from what he had managed to gather about the personality of that woman… it is likely she would not approve of his current actions.

“Man beast transformation!”

“Oh, this again.” The demon was reminded of the Chunin exams preliminaries.

Ignoring the remark of the demon, Kiba continued, his mom was with him every step of the way.

“Beast clone!”

“Seriously. If you take that long in just preparation, someone might kill you just out of boredom.” Naruto said, feeling his eyes getting heavy from sleep.

“Fang over fang!” the mother and son team announced.

Spinning like a drill, both mother and son started to approach towards the demon. Dew to her greater speed, Tsume reached Naruto first.

“The people of this world have strange techniques.” Yamato’s comment dried the sleepy feeling Naruto was experiencing.

“Don’t I know it?”

He stabbed the sword right through the spinning woman, causing a horrific death.

“No, mom!” came the cry of Kiba.

“Well, people do die in the battle. A second of silence over the woman whom I have just killed...... the second is over.”

“You—you, I’ll kill you!”

“Get in the line boy, everyone is trying to kill or use me since the moment I was born.” Naruto said.

The way he was behaving… that angered Kiba. The bastard could at least show some remorse, but he did not even do that.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!”

Yelling at the top of his lungs, Kiba reached Naruto. But the problem was, there were two of the same people.

“Which way will you choose?” came the heavy voice of Yamato, as if the fate of the world was depended on this one choice.

“Hm, I am always have been an honest and upright person. So, let’s go… right!” the demon said righteously.

Stab!

The Kiba at the right side turned out to be the clone, while the real one passed the demon from his left. The clone reverted back to its original form, the form of the dog Akamaru.

The dog was stabbed through Yamato as if he was hanging on a fishing hook.

“Oh my god, why do you have to commit these crimes?” came the horrified voice of Yamato.

Flicking the body aside in horror, Naruto frantically apologized.

“Universe is my witness; I did not kill that dog intentionally! Animal right activists, you should look these people, as they are the true perpetrator of this crime!” Naruto was looking at the sky, and hollering at the top of his lungs.

“They are the cruelest animal abusers, training these poor creatures for use in war.” The demon continued, as if trying to win support from a population.

“Akamaru!” Kiba’s howl of sadness interrupted Naruto’s impressive speech.

Suddenly, Kuromaru, the hound which was the partner of Tsume, came from behind of the demon, and grabbed him from his jaws, restraining Naruto in the process.

“Oi! Let me go.” Naruto demanded.

“First, you killed my partner. And now my own kin? I won’t let you live.”

As the dog prepared to crush Naruto by his jaws, the demon did what instinctually came to him… gore him through his sword.

“Ahahahaha… oops?” chuckling nervously, Naruto pulled out his sword from the body of the Kuromaru.

Yamato just sighed. “This isn’t your day, is it?”

“Yeah.” Naruto just nodded.

Kiba came again, trying to take Naruto. But the demon closed his fingers around the Chunin’s throat, and strangled him to unconsciousness.

But Naruto had more worrying things to think about, as a swarming cloud of bugs came behind of the demon, and covered him entirely.

But soon, those bugs were leaving. while half of them were lying at the ground, getting vaporized slowly, while others managed to fly back to their owner.

“Well, looks like someone forgot to debug this place.” The sword just couldn’t resist.

Ignoring the horrible joke of Yamato, Naruto was watching the small critters die, fascinated.

“I never knew what kind of effect would the demon energy have on the creatures whose entire diet is Chakra.”

“Again, more research and data are needed,” a completely unchanging voice said from the rubble of the buildings, through which Naruto had send Lee flying.

“Ah Shino.” Naruto acknowledged.

“Yes. Once more you completely forgot about me.” While Shino’s voice did not change, but Naruto felt that there was a tone of accusation present.

“Perhaps I did, or perhaps I didn’t.” was the political answer of the demon.

But the hooded boy withdraws himself, causing Naruto to stare after him in the shock.

“Oi, don’t you want to kill me or something?”

“As it has been just proven now, I cannot do that. better left that job to someone who can do so.” Was the simple and sensible answer of the Shino.

“… That takes all the fun out of it.” Naruto muttered.

Not replying to the mumbled comment of Naruto, Shino left. This again, was the mistake on Naruto’s part… which he should have rectified it when he had the chance.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru was completely broken by his father’s death, while Ino was healing the unconscious Choji and her knocked out father.

At this point, team seven was the only ones who were in any fighting condition.

Clucking his tongue, Naruto said to Sakura, “Wow, I knew that you were selfish, but not even assisting your so-called friend in healing your fallen allies?”

“Shut up!” Sakura said, face red.

Sasuke, just hung back and watched all this happening. After all, once all these righteous losers are out, he’ll kill the demon of their nightmare which they themselves created, (Sasuke was honest enough to admit that,) only to turn back and plunge them in to the hell the likes of these people have never experienced before.

Also, considering that hate was the foundation of his life, he completely approved Lee’s beating by the hands of Naruto. Ah, if he could only take control of him… he will prove to be an excellent tool of terror.

While Sasuke was stuck in his ruminations, Sakura once more succumbed to Naruto’s taunts, and was performing the ‘Angry flailing.’

“Seriously, like master,”

Bam!

A punch connected with Sakura’s jaw, sending her flying for a quite a distance, where she crashed on an empty shop set close to the stadium.

“like student.” Naruto finished.

Disappearing from his former position, Naruto appeared, and dragged the girl out of the rubble.

Only to hoist her up on his shoulder, and pull at her arms and legs.

“Like this hold? This is called a torture rack.”

“Guh!”

Unfortunately for Naruto, his former teammate was not in any condition to appreciate the submission hold.

“You know, I never understood why did someone like you actually get a pass from academy. I mean sure, you could do a job as a record maintainer or something, but as a real Shinobi?”

Tightening his hold, Naruto continued.

“While I can let go of that, considering that you did started to take your choices seriously by the time I left. But in three years, other than the strength augmentation, you’ve learned nothing.”

Dew to the pain, Sakura couldn’t retaliate to the remarks of Naruto. She was also unable to ask for the help from Sasuke, so she pleaded through her eyes.

Of course, her bad luck was that Sasuke was unlikely to help her in any case.

“Oh well. Guess that didn’t turn out so great.”

Releasing his hold over Sakura, Naruto grabbed her leg, and spinning like a top, throws her. He didn’t bother to check what happened to her after that.

Because as soon as Sakura was sent flying, Naruto was sneak attacked by none other than Hinata.

“Yes, just like yourself.”

While the girl tried to land few strikes on Naruto, the demon took a step back.

“What, forgot about me?” the girl said with a soft voice.

“Ah, how can I forget about you?” Naruto said in amusement.

Hinata felt something strange. She really wanted Naruto to be on her side, but he does not seem to except her.

“Well then, you’ve chosen your path, however badly it may be chosen.” The head of Hyuga clan declared.

“Oh, be quiet.” Naruto was not willing to take a lecture from a girl whose entire world was supported by a fantasy.

Hinata came forward to exchange more blows with the demon, and this time she was successful in landing a lot of strikes. Which caused the demon to fall at the ground?

“Look at you now, none of this would have happened if you have accepted my offer.” Said the Hyuga, superiority dripping from her tone.

But the body on the ground started to dissolve, causing the girl to stare in shock.

But before she could do anything, she was grabbed from behind, her arms were twisted so she couldn’t get herself free.

Naruto restrained her legs, just for good measure.

“What were you saying?” the demon tightened his hold.

Shikamaru, the only one who was conscious from his earlier failed attempt of capturing or killing Naruto, was observing all of this.

‘If I could surprise him, that should be enough to make him drop his guard, and he wouldn’t be able to take control of my shadow.’ At least the Nara was hoping that surprise may be enough that Naruto wouldn’t be able to exert his control.

With a grim face, the Nara settled to wait.

“Did you actually know why I just keep refusing you to join me?” Naruto said, while clearly knowing that the girl would prefer it to be other way around.

Hinata tried to say something, but Naruto did not care about what the girl has to say.

“Oh, so now you have some spine, hm? I would never join you. It will be the other way around. Besides, you will only use me as a crutch. Get on with your life… on your own strength.”

Knocking her out by hitting her temple, Naruto throws Hinata away… just for Shikamaru to take advantage of this moment and grab the demon within his shadow.

The shadows quickly climbed over Naruto’s body, and when it reached Naruto’s throat, Shikamaru tried to strangle him then and there.

But no matter how much the Nara exerted his force of will on the shadow, it wouldn’t budge any further than its current position.

“What?”

“Looks like you forgot your lesson. I said it before… absolute control over the darkness.”

“Nooo!” face falling, the Nara tried to withdraw his shadow, but it was under Naruto’s control now.

“Now, dance my puppet… I say, dance!” when the puppet did not cooperate, the demon exerted his will harder, making the Nara wince.

“Ino, dodge.” Despite Naruto’s control, Shikamaru managed to warn his teammate of upcoming danger.

The blond medic who was still busy tending to her father and Choji, looked up in shock as Shikamaru was rushing at her.

Whatever got in her teammate, at least her father and her other teammate was stable enough for her to deal with this.

“Shikamaru, control yourself!” Ino said in her bossy tone.

“I can’t. Naruto is manipulating me through my shadow!” the Nara managed to blurt that out, before Naruto clamped his lips.

“Be quiet, will you?”

The Nara’s face was tightened as he tried to say more, yet his mouth would not cooperate with him.

“Now, engage that delicious medic in combat.” Naruto said, while eying Ino.

With a snap of a finger, Naruto controlled Shikamaru like a puppet, as he attacked Ino.

Ino couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The blows of Shikamaru were strong. Yet, she knew that Tijutsu was not the strong point of the Nara.

Despite that, the Nara was horizontal on one leg on the ground, while he was putting his other leg back to the ground after kicking Ino on her face, and sending her flying.

Then, Naruto took the unwilling Nara towards Sasuke, making him kick the unconscious Hinata just because he could.

“Cruelty for the cruelty’s sake is a sin.” Yamato said sagely.

“And since when did you become expert in the morality?” the demon asked.

“I am not. I just said that because it sounded cool in my head.” Yamato confessed.

“I know, right? I do it all the time!” Naruto answered in amusement, while the Nara’s screams of pain rang out in the background.

Despite his enhancements, Shikamaru was no match for Sasuke. That is why, when the Uchiha was done with him, he kicked the broken and bleeding Nara away, and started to approach Naruto.

“Hmph! Did you really thought that he would be able to hold against me?”

“No. but I really thought that he would last longer than that.” Naruto said, disappointment dripping from his voice.

“Clearly, just like you, these people can’t recognize their inferiority.” Sasuke said.

“Hahahahahahahahaha! That is rich coming from you.” Naruto roared with laughter.

Sasuke’s eyes morphed into Sharingan, and he glared at the demon.

“Oooo! Very scary. What are you going to do to me? Especially when you can’t even see me with those eyes?”

Indeed, Sasuke could not see Naruto with his normal Sharingan. But he activated his cursed seal level two, and his mangekyo simultaneously.

“That might be true in the past. But now, I can see you!” the Uchiha declared coldly.

Not waiting for his answer, Sasuke rushed at Naruto, while taking out his sword as well.

“Oh, so it is a sword fight you want?”

Naruto brandished Yamato and took his stance.

Clang!

Sasuke’s first strike was easily blocked by Naruto. But this time, he was not helpless with Chakra exhaustion, nor he was surprised. Thus, the Uchiha continued his barrage of sword strikes… none of which actually manage to break the guard of Naruto.

“It is too bad that you have decided to be a puppet, we both could have been useful for each other.” the demon was commenting while blocking the strikes of Uchiha.

“You are the true puppet.” Sasuke replied.

“Oh yeah? Then tell me. You already know the truth about what happened to your clan. Yet, you are still fighting at the side of the very same people?” after all, Naruto was the one who practically told him the truth.

“I’ll kill them all, once I am done removing you.”

“As if. You don’t have enough knowledge, cunning or strength to go through that plan.”

Channeling lightning through his sword, Sasuke engaged with Naruto in a sword fight again.

The area around them was silent. Aside from the people who were dead or unconscious, they were the only two fighting. The rest of the Shinobi were busy in the removing the civilian population from the immediate danger, and securing the various ways of getting out of the village.

Clang! Clang! Bang!

Engaging him in the constant exchanges of sword strikes, Naruto took advantage of Sasuke’s lax guard and kicked him in the midsection.

The wind was knocked out of the Uchiha, and he stumbled few paces backward.

“Seriously, the sooner you recognize that you’re a puppet, the better it would be for you in the long run… not that you have much of a long time.”

“You—” Sasuke’s protest was cut short with the following words of Naruto.

“Oh, shut up. Itachi told you to hate him, you did so. Orochimaru promised you power, you went and licked his boots.”

As the list was going on, the Uchiha was getting angrier and angrier.

“When that failed, you’ve tried to get some freedom. But again, you ended up falling for whatever these people promised. So, a puppet through and through.”

“Shut up! Chidori!” completely fed up with the constant chatter of Naruto, Sasuke decided that he would end this permanently.

The crackling blade of lightning appeared in the hands of Sasuke, who completely lost his temper by this point.

Sasuke rushed at Naruto, the lightning blade screeching like many birds in his hand, but Naruto just grabbed his wrist right before he could stab the demon with the Chidori.

“Hm. Really can’t believe that this attack gave me my third near death.”

Bam!

“Guhhh!” Sasuke screamed.

Naruto drove his knee at the midsection of Uchiha. He also broke his wrist, snapped his other arm, and punched him so hard that Sasuke went flying to the other side of the street.

Sasuke tried to get his body to cooperate with him, but he just took too much damage in such a short amount of time that his body was in shock. The curse seal also receded, leaving him gasping at the ground.

“See? This is what you’ve got for your troubles. I guess it was Orochimaru who convinced you to join this village again, wasn’t he?”

Sasuke did not answer. He was busy trying to get himself up again.

“Whatever. I am leaving, there is no one in this village who can stop me. They should have listened to me.”

The footsteps of Naruto retreated, telling Sasuke that the demon was gone.

It also told him that he was once more left alive, not worthy of receiving death.

Another thing which he sensed through the blows of Naruto… was the quietly concealed anger for the world. Perhaps the demon himself is not aware of such anger hidden within him.

Still, it gave Sasuke a mirror to see himself in.

‘He’s just like myself… maybe worse than me.’ With that thought, the consciousness left the Uchiha.

* * *

(With Tsunade.)

The Hokage was having trouble just moving her hands. Yet, slowly but surely, some movement returned.

Taking advantage of that movement, Tsunade healed herself a little, and after she was good enough that she could walk towards Jiraiya and Orochimaru, she started to heal them as well.

* * *

(With Naruto, some street of Leaf village.)

“So, we are just going out of here?”

“Yes. Ideally, I would leave, and they would leave me be, and we’ll never see each other’s faces again.” The demon said, though he knew that chances of that happening were practically below zero.

“You don’t honestly expect that to happen, do you?”

“Of course not. They will not let go of their weapon so easily.” Naruto said, hating the very thought of being a weapon for someone else.

“Going somewhere?” a relaxed voice said.

“Yes. I suggest you don’t try to stop me.” Naruto was absolutely not in any mood to deal with anymore problems.

“Oh, but how can I do that?” Kakashi said, appearing out of the shadows.

“You know, all things considered… you should retire by now. No point in doing your duty anymore.”

“You would say that, wouldn’t you?”

Naruto tried to move forward, but Kakashi blocked his path.

“Damn it.” the demon cursed.

“Why are you so afraid of combat?” Kakashi asked.

Clearly, he had seen how much Naruto was warning people as a posed to just killing them.

“You know that I am not. But what is the point? I gave you the warning, that I will go out of this village. Yet, you never listen to me.” Naruto pointed around himself. “None of this had to happen.”

Kakashi’s eyes flickered in surprise, and Yamato’s warning suddenly rang within the mind of Naruto.

‘Naruto, get out of the way, now!’

Instinctually, Naruto reacted without even thinking.

Bam!

But still, the demon was sent flying because he was clipped by the blow on his side.

Controlling his wild spinning in the air, Naruto landed and turned around to see who exactly could have struck at him.

“Oh, it’s you.” The demon said.

Tsunade smirked. “You shouldn’t have left a medic alive… or so near their teammate.”

“Dammit!” Naruto cursed again.

“Exactly.”

Right then, Orochimaru and Jiraiya appeared.

“Dammit princess, why do you have to run off like that?” Jiraiya asked.

“I couldn’t let him hurt anyone.” Tsunade said seriously.

“Ah, real nice of you.” Naruto mocked.

“Shut up.” Orochimaru said.

“Kakashi, I hope you aren’t hurt?” the Hokage asked turning to the masked Jonin.

“No lady Hokage. We did not engage in combat yet.”

“Good then.”

“The important thing is, what are we supposed to do now?” Jiraiya asked.

“For starters, not holding a tactical meeting right in front of your enemy?” said enemy pointed.

“Be quiet!” Jiraiya scolded with a red face.

Naruto took a step back. “I—I only wanted to help…”

“Yeah, they know what sort of help you want to give them.” Yamato by this point, was more than familiar with the antics of his wielder.

Getting the discussion back on track, Orochimaru suggested, “Maybe we should try to summon, perhaps they would have a way to deal with him.”

“I don’t know whether you two are having same problems or not, but for some reasons I can’t summon for a while now.” Jiraiya said.

“You two?” Orochimaru said, not liking where this is going.

“Hmm! I don’t seem to have any such problems.”

“That is because I haven’t got to the slugs yet.” Naruto said again, interrupting the tactical meeting in the process once more.

“You!” Orochimaru said furiously.

“Yes, me. Manda is probably nursing the wounds I gave him when I fought you… by the way, even as a human, I totally owned you.”

Orochimaru snarled in rage.

“And toads most likely haven’t recovered from what I did to them.”

“What?” Jiraiya asked, “What did you do to them?”

“Oh nothing. just killed their elder, burned down half of the mount Myoboku, and I may or may not have eaten all of their delicious fruits. I can’t believe that they were trying to push their bug diet on me, while hiding such delicious fruits!”

Jiraiya broke down into tears. “Why? Why did you do that?”

“Look. When I left you, I knew that you would try to reverse summon me. I didn’t want that to happen, so I requested the audience from Gamabunta. And I asked him nicely, with sake on top no less! To sever the contract with me. But the bastard refused, very rudely too! And I even gave him explanation for why I was doing all of this. Yet, he still refused!” Naruto said all of that without taking a breath.

Naturally, before continuing, he took a large one, and continued to rattle, “So just like any grieved customer, who was not receiving the customer care from the guy whom they have been dealing… I requested that the matter be transferred to a senior official. Thankfully, he listened, and I was granted the audience to these two old toad couples.”

“I am, being an honest and upstanding summoner—”

Yamato coughed, “Summoner? True. Honest and upstanding? Not very much.”

“—Explained my problem to them. (Incidentally, this was the time where they tried to feed me bugs. They… did not tasted like chips.) and do you know what they did? Refuse!”

Jiraiya, helpless to stop Naruto’s tirade, continued to listen. He could not do any other thing than that.

Tsunade and Orochimaru were also having the strange expressions appear on their faces as this tirade was continuing.

“Considering that I was such a gracious summoner until this point, and toads have assisted me very well in the past—”

“What do you mean assist you well!” the toad Sannin exploded.

“Well, just how exactly do you think I managed to acquire secret information about the missions up for grab, and be there when Tsunade was about to assign them?” the demon asked with a pointed look.

“Not possible. No toad would help you like that.”

“Tut… tut… for a guy who trained a demon in the past… you are quite slow, aren’t you?” if the rest of the demon world found out that he was trained by the guy like him… what would happen to his reputation?

“Why do you have to say that?” Jiraiya whined, he was a good teacher in his opinion, thank you very much.

“Because toads, or any summoned animal do not have any personal obligation to the place of affiliation of their summoner. Isn’t that the point, Uzomaki?” Orochimaru said.

“Correct. Toads are no different. It is true that you have seniority on your side, but I could still ask for some tasks in which I could ask for their help, and they would obey me, without hesitation… like that guy Gamakichi. What a loyal guy.”

Jiraiya’s morale started to sink as the explanation of the demon continued.

“Anyway, where I was, oh yeah! So, I requested that my problem be transferred to the toad elder. They warned me that it wasn’t a good idea, but I didn’t want you to hound me constantly. So, I met the elder.”

The demon started to shake, as if the storm of emotions he was experiencing… could not be contained anymore.

“Oh boy.” Yamato sighed.

“But I didn’t realize that I would end up meeting a senile old toad, who was most likely alive during the Sage of The Six Path’s… and who would forget why even I was there, in every! Second! Minute!” Naruto roared in rage by just remembering that meeting.

“But the highlight was when he told me that he will not grant me my request of breaking the contract with the toads because there was this bullshit prophecy about me, and I was walking a dark path, and so I must find a better path with the help of the toad’s guidance, and control. (Things which I hate, I think you should know by this point.) He not only pressed my button… he broke it by literally saying all of that in my face.” Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Naruto continued.

“So, I decided that I want none of that diplomacy crap, murdered that old senile toad, nearly killed Gamabunta when he tried his rampaging on me, and while I nearly got killed (I wasn’t a demon back then.) I ate all of their fruits, and escaped.”

Tsunade’s expression was screaming that she did not wanted this talking to continue any longer.

Orochimaru was busy deciding whether he should the gloat in the misfortune of Jiraiya, or lament his own.

Jiraiya couldn’t believe that his student, was so unstable back then, and he didn’t even notice.

‘Is this how you felt, sensei?’ he asked to himself… not for the first time.

“So, what. You are so impressed that you will let me go outside of this village, and we will never see each other’s faces ever again?” the demon asked hopefully.

“Not a chance brat. Even if we forget that you are a source of strength for the Leaf, the damage you have done cannot be forgiven.” Tsunade said.

“Ah yes. The living weapons. I wonder whether you will be singing a different tune if your grandmother was in the same position as I am.” Naruto said, while referring to the wife of Hashirama.

“You—” Tsunade tried to retort, but Naruto was having none of it.

“The only reason why she was protected was because no one had balls to call Hashirama’s wife a weapon, either on his face, or behind his back.”

“That is pointless now. She is dead, so is my grandfather. None of them are here, are they? Then I will take decisions which I think are right. Jiraiya, Orochimaru, summon now!” the Hokage ordered.

“Yes!” both of them exclaimed, and flipped through the hand signs of summoning Jutsu.

All the while hoping that their summons would truly have a way to stop the demon.

“Summoning Jutsu!”

In three large clouds of puffing smoke, the boss summons of toad, snake, and slug appeared.

“Orochimaru! How dare you summon me without sacrifices, knowing specially what happened last time?” Manda was referring how he was nearly fried, and managed to survive earlier in the battle with Naruto.

“What, that I nearly roasted you alive?” the roaster proclaimed his presence to the snake boss.

“You!” Manda looked down at the smirking demon.

Meanwhile, Gamabunta was busy giving the similar speech to Jiraiya, making Naruto think that having such summons who berate you so much is not worth the headache.

“Jiraiya, how dare you summon me like this!”

As a favor for his not so much good of a training in the past, Naruto decided to save his former mentor from further embarrassment by the mouth of the toad boss Gamabunta.

“Oh, high boss, did you miss me!” Naruto said, in a very high-pitched voice.

“You brat, I am gonna crush you, you hear me?” in a moment, Gamabunta forgot the berating of Jiraiya, and turned to the demon.

While all of this was happening, Tsunade was receiving much more respectful greeting from her summon boss Katsuyu.

“Milady, what is the task for me?” the slug asked respectfully.

“Ah, it is too bad that I have summoned you in such time. Remind me to have a chat with you once in a while, okay? “

“I will.”

“Hmm. Let those meatheads fight him. We have a lot of people to heal.” Tsunade said, referring to the other two summoners and their summons.

“I understand.” Saying that, the slug started to divide itself into smaller parts, which went in the search for the people who are injured.

Still, one part did remain with Tsunade. It has to be this way, so Hokage can heal the people to whom the slug was attached.

“I swear brat, this time you won’t escape from my fangs!” Manda declared. 

“You should only made threats which you know you can follow up on.” Naruto advised.

With an enraged roar, the giant snake dove underground, and coming right behind the demon, tried to bite him.

“This again?” Naruto evaded the attempt, while surprised that it was not the one-time occurrence when he last fought the snake boss.

“He is not the dark type, how is he using crunch?” Yamato asked, baffled.

“I don’t know, dammit!” Naruto said while cursing and avoiding the snake boss.

Manda tried to lock Naruto within his coils, so he could squeeze the breath out of him. But the demon escaped, and slashed off one of his scales with Yamato.

“did you forget about me!” a voice stated from the sky.

Gamabunta stabbed his giant tanto on the ground with all of his body weight behind it.

“Did I get him?” the giant toad asked.

“Nope,” a voice said right above him. “You’ve missed.”

Naruto descended from the air with a vicious stomp on Gamabunta. After that, the demon kicked the large amphibian so hard that the building sized toad toppled to the ground.

Jiraiya, who was knocked in the air by Naruto earlier, was gaping at such an insane feat. But Naruto did not have much time to enjoy the results, for Orochimaru was immediately after the demon with his Kusanagi.

Blocking the snake man’s strike, Naruto commented, “Really, didn’t I tell you that you seriously are a poor swordsman?”

Proving his point, Naruto exploited the holes within Orochimaru’s guard. Adding insult to injury, the demon did not even try to cut the Sannin with his sword, instead assaulted him with the flurry of fists and knee strikes, and ruthless kicks. After one such kick sent the Orochimaru some distant away, Naruto commented to his sword.

“I really don’t enjoy doing that. kicks really mess with my balance.” Naruto said honestly.

“Really? I couldn’t tell.” Was the sarcastic remark of Yamato. After watching what the demon did just now, it was hard to believe what his wielder was saying anyway.

“Brat, did you forget about me?” Jiraiya said, crouching to the ground.

“What?”

Naruto noticed how the ground was turning soft, and he was slowly starting to submerge within.

“Oy old man, this is a war crime, this is just not done!”

“Forget about the crime, get us out of here. I don’t want us to turn into fossil for millions of years… I have just got out and am just experiencing the world!” Yamato said, panicking greatly.

“Calm down already, look, I’ll do something.”

Channeling his still rather fragile control over lightning, Naruto freed himself from the swamp, and jumped off from the dangerous ground, and landed on the high perch of a small shop’s roof.

“What? That was supposed to immobilize you, then I would through the awesomeness of toads, would capture you, and Tsunade as a result of getting impressed from me, would immediately concede!” Jiraiya revealed his grand plan… which failed just now.

“You know, I get where you got it from.” Yamato commented.

“It is not easy to escape someone’s habit influencing you, when you spend a lot of time on the road with them.” Naruto said wisely.

Ignoring the still mumbling Jiraiya, (Naruto agreed with Yamato that if his plan failed in such a fashion, he would act that way as well,) he did not find Orochimaru anywhere. but the demon saw Tsunade.

Not wanting to leave the medic to do as she please this time, the demon immediately jumped after her.

Landing softly behind her, Naruto whispered, “Hay there, saggy tits. Missed me?”

A brutal fist strike was the answer of the demon, which he evaded by leaning backward.

He got to the normal standing position again, air brushing on his face from the last strike of the slug Sannin.

“Really? You were that frustrated and did not tell me?” the demon said, grinning.

But this time, Naruto was too cocky for his own good as he did not saw the kick coming from Hokage.

Bam!

“Shiiiiiit!” Naruto said, flying towards a building.

“Everyone listens. Surround Naruto Uzomaki from every side, and use seals to immobilize him.”

All the Shinobi at the various point of the village received this message, and started to converge at the location of Naruto.

“Still trying to use me as a weapon?” Naruto said, while extracting himself from the rubble of the building where he was sent flying.

“I won’t let that happen, even if I will have to annihilate this entire planet!” Naruto said, all the traces of the playfulness gone, instead replaced by a harsh and ruthless demon.

Yamato gasp at this declaration. “But, but the beauties live here!”

“Don’t worry Yamato. I will take you on a better world, where there are more beauties, that this world could never hope to match!”

Realizing that there will be more Shinobi coming towards his location, Naruto started to ran in the streets of the Leaf.

“You do realize that you are running in the open, right?”

“Yes. But the thing is, I can handle them in the combat. But I won’t let them box me in a location where they could use their seals.”

“Feh. They can’t bind you, even if they tried.” Yamato was confident of that fact.

“Not taking chances, dammit!”

Naruto cursed because there was someone who was blocking his way.

More specifically, the long body of Manda the snake boss.

“Did you really thought that you will be able to escape?” Manda stated, happy that he was finally at the position to dominate the demon.

Preparing a large sphere of water, Naruto throws at the snake boss, surprising the snake monster greatly.

“Drown within that, will you?”

“Gurgle!” was the answer of the snake boss.

Manda was not a water snake. Also due to the enclosed area like the streets where his body did not have much movement in the first place, ensured that he would end up in a lot of water.

“Brat!” came the voices of Jiraiya and Gamabunta.

“Fuuuck!” Naruto swore.

Deciding that he did not want Jiraiya to use seals on him, Naruto decided that the giant snake boss could certainly handle some more water.

Thus, he created a water wave around himself by producing more water, and started to ride on the top of that wave.

“Gurrrrrrrral!” Manda protested when the demon rode the wave of water right over his body, causing him to drown in more water.

“Uzomaki, in the name of Leaf—” a Chunin said.

“Surf!” Naruto announced to the helpless Chunin, and cut him down.

He continued to ride the wave of water, flooding all the areas wherever the demon made his path.

Several ANBU, Jonin, and Chunin tried to stop Naruto, but they all were cut down before they could do anything, and leaving the waters bloody.

“At least they stopped trying to announce ‘in the name of some shitty place, or in the name of some moron about whom I don’t care.’”

But his progress was stopped when Tsunade appeared, and Katsuyu spat acid at the demon, causing him to halt, and cancel the wave.

“Now, why do you have to do that for?” Naruto whined, because finally he was starting to have some fun.

“You flooded my village!” the Hokage thundered.

Tsunade engaged with Naruto in an exchange of blows.

“Oh, we are doing this again?”

Naruto was dodging each of the Tsunade’s blows just in time, feeling the air moving by the force of her strength.

But this time, he was not willing to just disable her. So, with a whoosh of air, Yamato appeared within the right hand of Naruto, which Tsunade barely avoided.

The sword nearly carved the face of Hokage from left to right, but she managed to avoid it just in time. Yet, she could feel the movement of air as the Yamato left in his wake.

But just in the next moment, the demon struck the slug Sannin, at her jaw, making her lift in the air. The demon continued his assault by striking at Hokage’s temples, and finished by striking her spine with his fingers.

Once more for the second time, Tsunade’s body was not responding to her commands, and the Hokage was helpless at the feat of Naruto Uzomaki.

The Yamato gleamed in the afternoon sun, as the demon prepared to carve Tsunade from left to right in perfect two pieces.

“Braaaaaat!” a voice roared.

“What?” Naruto turned around…

And was promptly captured within the coils of Manda, while Gamabunta was coming to squash him from the air.

“Naruto, do something!” came the voice of panicked Yamato, he did not want to end up beneath a toad.

His reputation was already in tatters between the other sentient weapons, he did not want something like that in his records.

Meanwhile, Naruto was thinking how great it would have been if Jiraiya would have not put the anti-teleportation seals around the village, if it weren’t for those seals, the demon would have been out of here by this point.

But the toad Sannin forgot one thing.

‘I may not be able to escape outside of the parameter of the Leaf, but I can still teleport within.’

Just when Naruto tried to do that, he was immediately hold up by the effects of the seals.

‘Hm. Perhaps he thought more than I gave him credit for. But I can still overpower these.’

Doing as he planned, Naruto overpowered the anti-teleportation seals which stopped anything more advance than body flicker within the Leaf, Naruto escaped just in time.

Because on the very next moment, Gamabunta body slammed the former place of the demon, nearly crushing the one half of Manda.

“You damn fool! You can’t do anything right, could you?” the snake roared in pain and rage.

“Oh yeah? You had him within you’re coils. What happen to that?”

“You have one job.” The snake hissed.

“You two, stop fighting, Uzomaki is escaping.” Orochimaru said.

True to the snake Sannin’s word, Naruto was flying through the Leaf village, jumping from one building to another, while several ANBU chased him.

Getting annoyed with that, the demon changed his path towards the Hokage tower.

Once he arrived near to the Hokage tower, he blazed through that area, and when the Shinobi who were chasing him (Whose numbers just keep increasing,) were right beneath the tower, the demon fired a Fire Blast, destroying the bottom part of the Hokage tower.

“What?” several Shinobi said, in dumbstruck awe.

They never expected for that building, which was a symbol of their leadership and unyielding resolve to fall like this.

“Everyone, get out, now!”

But Jiraiya’s warning came too late, as the rumbling building came crashing down upon the ninjas, burying them alive.

“Naruto, look out!” similarly, the demon got the warning from his sword.

The roof of the tower was coming flying towards the demon. But the demon gave it a mighty uppercut, and the roof ended up flying at the back of Naruto, crushing the group of Shinobi who were preparing to sneak up on him.

“How is that for a job?” Naruto asked Gamabunta, smirking.

“You brat! You know that was not what I meant!” Gamabunta grumbled, knowing that the boy was talking about his earlier exchange with Manda.

“Oh, don’t be like that? remember how I stubbornly stuck to you despite your efforts to put me off you?”

“I seriously doubt that it has anything to do with this conversation.” Yamato said with a deadpan tone.

“You’re correct Yamato. Guess back to killing you again.”

Trying to smash the demon, Gamabunta grumbled, “I can’t believe that my son ran off with the likes of you!”

“Why wouldn’t he? After all, he wants a better life for himself, and as a primary summoner, I promised him that. not only just promised, I fulfilled that promise!”

“You certainly seem to take more pride in that…” the sword observed.

“Look Yamato. Living as a human, I have learned that people are bastards. (Including myself.) but I try to fulfill what I have promised my loyal friends. No point in going back on my word after all.”

“Naruto, you’ve realized that we’re trapped?” the sword commented.

Taking a look around himself, the demon nodded.

“Looks like your sword is smarter than you… but then again, the brains department was not your strongest area.” Taunted Shikamaru.

“Look who’s it is coming from. A guy whose body heats up by just thinking. I am much better than you.” Naruto said, a contemptuous look on his face.

The demon was surrounded by the people whom he had knocked out earlier. there were clan heads who managed to survive his earlier assault, there were his classmates who were back on their feats.

“Clearly. One thrashing was not enough for you people.”

“Shut up loser.” Was the reply of Uchiha.

“Ah, how does it feel to be surrounded from all sides?” Orochimaru appeared, Manda along with the snake Sannin getting out of the ground.

Naruto looked around. There were people at his front, people at his right, along with Jiraiya, similar situation was at the left side.

“Why are you hesitating? Aside from those three and some exceptional individual, no one can stand up to you. Kill them all, and make your path clear.” Yamato tried to boost the confidence of his wielder.

“You know what? You are right Yamato. I have played defensive so far. No more.”

But before the demon could put this plan in action, Tsunade appeared, with yet more Shinobi right behind Naruto, and gave an order.

“Everyone, use your strongest attack, if it wouldn’t kill him, then this would certainly disable him.”

“But lady Tsunade, the damage…” one Shinobi protested.

“Don’t worry about it. we can easily rebuild after this nightmarish situation is over.” Assured the Hokage.

“Yes!” everyone nodded, and started to flip through the hand signs.

“Uh, Naruto, about that plan… I think you should change it—” Yamato said nervously.

“No. bring it on.” Said the demon stubbornly.

“That is a stupid idea, and I want you to know that it has nothing to do with me!” the sword said, hysteric at this point.

“Be quiet, and be ready to open the gate.” Naruto said, unruffled yet.

Hearing that, inside his dark dimension, Yamato smiled.

Naruto saw how various Shinobi were making hand signs, no doubt preparing to unleash their strongest techniques, the type which they can fire and forget.

Exactly as Naruto thought, all the Shinobi released their techniques. Naruto faced the incoming deluge of attacks unflinchingly; he did not take the slightest step back.

Not that it would have helped, because the attacks were coming from all direction, including his back.

The attacks were all shapes and sizes, there were different types as well.

There was a deluge of weapons, like Tenten likes to use, the Shinobi who did not specialized in ninjutsu thrown the whatever kunai, shuriken, and other assortments of small ninja weapons they had.

Then there were elemental attacks, techniques of lightning, fire, earth, wind, and water.

There were dragons made of earth, fire, and water, of all shapes and sizes. Also, some Hyuga techniques, the clan having only few of the long-ranged techniques, which only the most adept members can use.

The demon took a closer look to the people who were attacking him.

‘Hmhmhmhmhm. They don’t even realize that one of their Jonin is missing.’ Naruto, of course, was thinking about Neji.

Of course, Lee, who was seeing how his various comrades were contributing everything they can, he also decided to use what he had, despite Tenten’s urges.

“Lee, don’t open the sixth gate. You won’t be able to fight afterwards!” the weapon user was saying.

“But I must, I can’t stand by doing nothing… while my comrades do everything within their power to stop the wavered Naruto, I too, must do something. Gate of joy, open!” yet, her urgings were lost on the passionate Lee.

Around Lee, the wind started to whip in frenzy, and the boy started to punch in the air, as if he was practicing his forms of martial arts.

But they weren’t any normal punches. Each punch of Lee produced flames dew to friction from the air, and soon those flames approached Naruto just like every other attack.

All of this converged on one Naruto Uzomaki, concluding with a large explosion.

Booooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Hold used by Naruto on Lee is called surfboard stretch.
> 
> Also, it seems that the only time when my story receives any visiters is when I update. Is there something I can do to make it more discoverable on this site? Any tips you send my way regarding that will be appreciated.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18.

Naruto Uzomaki has left the Leaf.

(At the Hidden Leaf, near destroyed Hokage tower.)

The explosion was so large that the buildings for at least a kilometer lost their window glasses dew to the shock wave.

All the Shinobi who surrounded the area were anxiously waiting for the smoke and dust to clear. They still were not sure what would the condition of their enemy will be.

Slowly, the cloud of dust and smoke blew away in the wind, to reveal a large crater. Still, the visibility was not clear enough that they could see Naruto.

Soon, it did clear however, to reveal…

That the demon was not in a great condition. Clearly, he had seen better days.

Most of his clothes were destroyed, his body was lacerated, the left hand which was not holding Yamato was gone half way, while the other one was barely intact.

It was clear that Naruto was struggling to even remain standing. But even then, the stubborn demon did not let go of his sword.

Realizing the moment of weakness, Tsunade motioned for people to capture the demon and lock him in a secure place, while the illusion of his execution would be carried out later.

Jiraiya moved to assist the Shinobi, a grimace on his face. In his opinion, rather than use him as a weapon, might as well kill him now. There was no point in increasing the suffering in the world by keeping his former student alive. Both his own, and the people around him.

Seeing the Shinobi approach, Naruto gave a bloody smile.

“You think I am finished?” he said hoarsely.

“You are in no condition of resisting anymore,” Jiraiya said softly. “Stop resisting and surrender.”

“You wish.”

Bringing up the Yamato with a flourish, Naruto prepared to attack. Jiraiya thought that the demon would attack when they got close to him.

But he was wrong.

With a blazing speed, the blade of Yamato increased in size, and easily stabbed through the chest of surprised Jiraiya.

“Impossible. He clearly did not display anything like this before.” Orochimaru said, while watching his helpless teammate.

Orochimaru was also concerned that the demonic blade was showing the same functionality as Kusanagi, extending itself to stab through the opponent who is far enough, that they can’t be hit by a conventional sword strike.

“The near-death experiences can be quite good for the development of a demon. Your attack unlocked that memory for me.”

Jiraiya looked down at the blade protruding out of his chest, which was soon enough retracted. At that point, people got over their shock, and Tsunade ran to stabilize Jiraiya.

But Yamato directly pierced through the toad sage’s heart, whatever Tsunade could do, would only by him few moments, nothing more.

‘So, this is how it all ends,’ the toad sage thought in his last moments.

There were many, many things he wanted to do differently, the weight of his failures… was especially heavy on his soul.

“Jiraiya, don’t die, do you hear me? You can’t leave me.” The Hokage was saying repetitively, as if saying those words over and over again would change what was happening.

She was trying to keep Jiraiya awake. If he lost the consciousness, he will die.

But the toad sage could not keep his eyes open for long, and soon, Jiraiya the student of third Hokage, author of the Make Out series, the spy master of Leaf, toad sage of mount Myoboku, super pervert closed his eyes… forever.

Meanwhile, Naruto’s injuries started to disappear one by one. First the lacerations got healed, then his almost gone hand returned as well, and the demon was back as good as new.

Stabbing the sword in the ground, Naruto ordered, “Yamato, open the gate.”

Tsunade turned towards the demon. “Kill him, no more capturing him.”

The Shinobi heard the change of order, and nodded.

But the summon bosses were looking concerned. Gamabunta, after Jiraiya is gone, could barely sustain himself in this realm. Whatever is the next move of the demon, it will be hard to deal with.

Then they saw how Naruto stabbed his sword on the ground. This action by itself was nothing to worry about. But the words uttered by the demon definitely were.

“Nooooo! Stop him from opening the gate!” screamed Manda.

“In the human world, has he gone mad?” Katsuyu muttered from the shoulder of Tsunade, the other parts being divided among the wounded Shinobi.

Disregarding any danger to himself, Gamabunta jumped at the demon, while Manda was coming from underground.

Meanwhile, behind Naruto a door appeared. The door emitted the feeling of ancientness as if it has seen many time periods, having existed for countless ages.

With a smooth sound, the door opened, and flames in the shape of a crow came out of it.

Manda upon realizing he was too late anyway, stopped himself right on time before he could get fried by the crow shaped flames. While Gamabunta had to make a lot of body movements to get out of the threat.

Still, Naruto found them amusing, and chuckled at the toad boss in the air.

“Jin Wuya, the son of Yatagarasu, air of the noble clan of the golden crow, has finally entered the human world!” a voice in the flames declared.

Slowly, the flames solidified from the shape of a crow, to a real crow, which was covered in flames. The crow was not larger than two feet. The crow flew up to Naruto, and perched on his left shoulder.

Which was very surprising for the Shinobi who were watching this. Naruto was not affected by the flames at all.

Some other Shinobi, however, were looking at the boss summons with strange glances. These were the legendary boss summons of three Sannin. And they were afraid of a small crow? True, it was covered with flames, but judging by the size, the slug boss, who was the least battle oriented among the three of them, could deal with the thing easily.

Upon hearing those Shinobi voicing such theories, Gamabunta who was huffing and puffing after barely avoiding the flames, rumbled.

“Silence!”

He achieved the result he wanted.

Katsuyu picked up the explanation. “Don’t judge that crow’s strength on his size.” Katsuyu said, by what the crow had said earlier confirming the gender of the creature.

“He is from the elite clan of the demons. They are a lot stronger than any summon you know.”

Interrupting the slug’s explanation, the demon’s voice came. “As much as I would love to play the trope of villain standing on the side while the allies explain various things to each other while making the battle plan in the front of the said villain,”

“So, you do consider yourself a villain.” Yamato said in the middle.

Ignoring Yamato, the demon continued. “I am fed up with you people. I told you, let me go, and we’ll never see each other’s faces ever again. Yet, you spat on my face, and tried to contain me for your own selfish use. So, now, prepare for the destruction which you so rightly deserve.”

“Oh yeah? Just because of a small crow you think you are a big thing now?” Kiba, not over the death of his loyal partner yet, said.

“Oh, that was a wrong thing to say.” Yamato muttered.

“We’ll show you who would be laughing in just few seconds.” the voice of the crow, previously so domineering and bombastic, went two notches down after hearing the comment about his size.

The crow flew from the shoulder of Naruto, and they both started to change.

It was a very strange seen. On one end, the flaming crow was getting bigger, while also getting larger wings and claws, while his flames were getting hotter in temperature, Naruto was going through more radical changes.

The demon removed his sunglasses, not wanting them to be destroyed in the transformation. His clothes however, were trashed. He won’t be able to change them until he gets out of the Leaf.

But all of this was not the main point.

The main point was, that two wings were coming out of Naruto’s shoulder. But this was not end of the transformation. His palms, previously uncovered, were now sporting gloves, which had black retractable claws.

“Man, fighting like this is much easier. Maybe I should get gloves permanently?”

“Yeah, your hands also won’t suffer the damage because of the sword practice overtime. Plus, they are really comfortable to me as well.” Yamato agreed.

In the final changes, Naruto’s eyes, which were purely gold previously, changed their color as well. Turning from gold to pitch black slit eyes.

He also got two horns at the both sides of his forehead, causing the demon to comment…

“I am now so very much horny.”

“Dammit!” the fully transformed giant crow cursed, “Don’t you have any other thing to say? Don’t embarrass me in front of these humans!”

“Ah, why are you so worried? They are idiots. They don’t hold a candle in comparison to us. It doesn’t matter what they think of us.”

Calming down, the crow said, “Fine.”

Meanwhile, the summon bosses were gathered to make plans to deal with the new development. Realizing the situation, Katsuyu also gathered all of her parts together, with the permission of Tsunade of course.

All the Shinobi were also gathered around them, ready for any help they could provide them.

“But the problem is, we can’t deal with both of them simultaneously.” Gamabunta was saying.

“Wait, you are worried about that crow, Or Naruto?” Shikamaru asked.

“Both of them.” was the answer of slug boss.

“Why? You all saw that we nearly killed him by our combine techniques.” The Inuzuka who was still nursing the wound the death of Akamaru’s left behind. “One more attack like that should finish him.”

“See? This is what worries me the most. The ignorance.” Manda hissed.

“Then enlighten us.” Orochimaru asked.

“Simple. Even if he did not summon this crow, Naruto would have been able to deal with you. But just as a complete show of his power, he summoned the crow from the dimension of the demons.” Manda explained.

“Exactly. Even if we dealt with this noble, and that is a very big if, you humans are not alone enough to deal with Naruto.” Gamabunta said, brutally honest.

“If only we could banish him for a while…” Orochimaru thought out loud.

Perking up a little, Gamabunta suggested, “We can always try to banish him.”

‘finally, you are proving that you are worth that snake contract!’ Manda thought, planning to hold this over Gamabunta’s head for a long time.

“For that, we will need elders. Let’s avoid it for now.” Katsuyu suggested.

“Right.” Gamabunta, realizing the implications, agreed.

“Yoo hoo, I am sorry to interrupt this planning. But we are getting impatient.” Came the voice of the demon.

“Yeah. And we’re not about to play chess with each other while leaving you morons to plan.” The crow said, back to his bombastic voice.

“Dammit. Listen, we must deal with that noble. Let’s leave the Uzomaki for the humans. If nothing else, they should manage to hold him off for a while.” Manda cursed.

“Otherwise, we have to summon the elders.” Gamabunta said.

With a loud slam, both the crow and Naruto landed between the circle of humans and the summon bosses, causing them to scatter.

“Listen. I really like the roasted snake. While toad and slugs are nothing for me. So, deal with them as you wish.”

“Really? Then tonight, we dine on a snake!” the crow said, his flames getting much more intense.

Smirking at that declaration, Naruto went after the Shinobi of Leaf, while the crow started to chase the summon bosses.

Using his wings, Naruto for the first time, took flight.

“Oi Uchiha. These are much better than your bat like hands!” the demon taunted.

Of course, the demon was just hovering close to the ground. If he did fell down, he would not experience much pain. But if he were to fell down from a great height… let’s just say this is not something which he wishes to experience.

Naturally, this caused the ninjas around Naruto to take advantage of that, they tried to throw weapons at the wings, used techniques, and some of them who were good with close combat, jumped and tried to grab the wings of Naruto.

“Oi, oi! Throwing weapons was one thing, but you crossed a line by trying to shred my newly gained wings through the elemental techniques!”

Muttering several curses, Naruto swerved left and right, bobbed up or down and successfully avoided all the elemental mayhem getting his way.

Of course, those weapons thrown by the people, were still getting on his location. Shuriken, Kunai knives, and more were getting closer to the demon.

But with a loud clang, all the weapons were stopped in their trajectory when they hit their target. But instead of piercing Naruto’s wings, they fell down as if they were blocked by another object made of steel.

Similarly, when the Shinobi tried to grab Naruto’s wings, their hands were shredded, as if those wings have blades around them.

All of this caused Yamato to comment, “I didn’t know you’re a steel type.”

“I didn’t either. Guess it was always hidden within.” Naruto commented in amusement.

‘More like your panic caused it to reveal it.’ the sword replied mentally.

“Uzomaki, if you dare, then come down here and fight like a man, one on one!” one of the Shinobi was saying.

“Yeah right. If you are a true human, then come up here and fight me… like a deceptive cheating ruthless Shinobi!” Naruto retorted.

“Wish granted.” Said an arrogant voice right behind Naruto.

Turning around (and nearly striking Sasuke with his wings,) the demon laughed.

“Ah, the bat things do enable you to come up here. But I swear, you won’t be going down.”

“We’ll see.”

After saying that, the Uchiha attacked Naruto, channeling Chidori through his sword.

Naruto blocked the strike with Yamato confidently, causing Sasuke great amount of surprise.

“What? Why is the electricity not getting to you?”

“Bitch, please. I channel what I want to.” Was the reply of the sword Yamato.

“That reminds me, that is a good time to check who’s lightning is more potent, yours? Or mine.”

“That does sound something for which a child may need an adult.” Yamato commented.

Ignoring Yamato, Naruto started to channel lightning on Yamato, having still not achieved great control over the element yet.

Still, each time Sasuke came nearly to receive damage and avoided, Yamato was making the buzzing sound, causing the Uchiha’s hares to stand on end.

As the exchange of blows stopped in the air for a moment, (Because both the Shinobi who were constantly firing techniques from the ground in the hopes to hitting Naruto,) Naruto saw his chance.

In a swift movement, he changed Yamato from his right hand to left, ignited flames on his right fist, and promptly punched the Uchiha, who was still not on his guard.

Sasuke did not expected this type of attack. He thought that Naruto would attack with his sword only. Clearly, he was wrong, for he immediately hit the ground hard, his upper chest and neck receiving a lot of burns.

“What? Went down so easily?”

Ignoring the pain of his burns, Sasuke got up and snarled at the demon.

Naruto himself, landed on the ground.

“The test flight was successful.” He proclaimed.

Orochimaru, thinking that the demon was distracted, attacked from behind. But Naruto turned around swiftly, causing the snake Sannin to get back. But he was not fast enough, Naruto still caught him on his wings.

“Steel wings!”

“Literally.” Yamato added.

Hissing in pain, Orochimaru suffered many lacerations on his body. He did heal himself through his creepy method of taking a new body out of his old one, but it still takes a lot of energy to perform. Not something he would like to do often.

With a loud crash, Manda and Gamabunta landed nearby, while the crow followed cackling.

“Hahahahaha! Really? I thought that you summons were stronger than this!”

Katsuyu also followed, not in a good condition herself.

The summon bosses were a sorry sight. the snake boss Manda, was covered with a lot of burns, not to mention several parts missing. He was sure that he would heal in time, but the crow would likely not give him the chance.

Gamabunta, however, was not only dealing with injuries and burns, he was also dealing with his dry skin. Both of the bosses were more combative in comparison of the slug, so if they were in such a condition, the slug did not have much of a chance of taking out the crow.

it could, however, spit acid at the crow, and by some time for their allies to regroup, while causing a lot of surprise and some pain for the Jin Wuya.

“Arg! Damn reptiles and amphibians! Just let me get my claws on you, you’ll regret ever messing with me!”

“Ah, Jin my friend, why do you worry so much?” Naruto appeared close to the crow.

“It is not like they can do anything to us.” The demon assured.

“True.” The crow agreed, calming down a little.

“Just remember that, and roast that snake really good, okay?”

The crow opened his beak in a smile. “Don’t worry about that.”

While the demon was assuring his ally, the summon bosses were strategizing.

“Look, by this point, it is very much clear that we can’t take that noble on by ourselves.” Manda hissed his verdict.

“The humans failed to hold the Uzomaki as well.” Gamabunta said in some disappointment.

“By this point,” the slug said, “We have no choice. We must banish him.”

“We can do that, but our power is not enough.” Manda reminded.

“Then we need to summon the elders. We need the humans in the future, that much is certain.” The slug said.

They would come useful in the conflict which was clearly coming in the future.

“True. But we’ll need time for that.” Gamabunta said.

Appearing next to her summon, the Hokage spoke.

“Whatever help you need, we will provide.”

“Then lady Hokage, you must hold off the Uzomaki and noble one for us to summon our elders.” Katsuyu the slug boss asked seriously.

Taking a grim expression, the Hokage nodded.

“Everyone, corner that flaming bird and Naruto, just like we did before! We already nearly killed him once, this time, we’ll do it for sure!” the Hokage ordered in a strong tone.

These words of Tsunade were enough to cheer the forces, but she did know that the price will be the lives of her people.

Yet, she did lead them back to the battle again.

“Flaming bird? We’ll see who will be flaming in the end, busty lady!”

“How cute, she thinks that she can corner me again—ohshit!” Naruto was saying, that suddenly…

a sword nearly took off the head of Naruto.

“You should pay more attention to your surroundings.” Orochimaru chided.

“Look who’s talking.”

It was by all means, an emergency exit for Orochimaru, otherwise he would had been roasted by the flames of the crow.

Meanwhile, Naruto took flight once more, several Shinobi were again after him.

Swerving left and right to avoid the techniques and weapons thrown his way, the demon was making himself hard to corner.

Not to mention, anyone who got too close to his wings, ended up mutilated.

Naruto was however unaware of plans of cornering him which were on progress, as the ANBU directed the hole effort through discrete hand signs which were obscured by the techniques of other Shinobi.

This time however, it was not important to bring the demon into a corner, instead it was important that he was at the center, and get surrounded by the ninjas.

All the while, the three bosses were preparing themselves to summon their elders. For that, they created a large circle from the drops of their own blood, and after channeling Chakra through it, they summoned their elders.

Unlike the normal summons, which appear through a puff of smoke, or sometimes a small explosion, these elders appeared within a very large boom.

Reflecting the natures of their species, these elders also have different temperaments as well.

Namekatsu, the slug elder was observing the surrounding, the boss summons by their side. Meanwhile, Shima and Fukasaku, the toad elders were bickering when they arrived. But upon realizing that they were no longer on mount Myoboku, they turned towards Gamabunta for explanation.

After Gamabunta explained the situation to them, they both were now sporting furious faces, especially when they learned about the death of Jiraiya.

Meanwhile, Manda has to explain the situation to the White Snake Sage very delicately, unless the elder lost his temper and killed him.

The elder was the perfect example of the nature of the snake pit.

Meanwhile, Naruto was once more surrounded. But this time, there was no way out of this one, he was not trapped in any corner like the previous time. He was trapped at the center.

Once more, all sorts of attacks were launched at him, from elements to general weapon attacks.

“Dammit!” the demon cursed.

He blocked most of the attacks by Yamato this time, but he forgot about Sasuke. As a result, the Uchiha got too close to him from behind, and was now firing long range Chidori variations.

Naruto in turn, used his steel wings as a shield.

“Naruto, don’t do that! you won’t be able to avoid the shock!” came the urgent warning of Yamato.

“I don’t have any choice! Ffuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!” right then, the attack arrived, and struck at the wings of the demon.

The attack by itself did not do any damage to Naruto. However, the electricity was carried through his wings, and caused him to suffer a nasty shock.

The smug voice of Sasuke didn’t help either. “Maybe you should realize the futility of your actions?”

“Shu-shut up puppet.” Naruto, jittery from the shock snarled at the Uchiha.

Sasuke opened his mouth to retort, but the demon was not in the mood to banter anymore. Naruto strikes him with a knee to the Uchiha’s midsection, causing the Uchiha to bend over in surprise and pain.

But Naruto did not stop there. Brandishing his sword, Naruto stabbed the right side of Uchiha’s chest. The demon blade ended up going through his body, and got out of the other side.

“Hm. Now you will know how much it hurts to be stabbed!”

This of course, was seen by Sakura. As soon as Naruto flicked Sasuke off Yamato, she rushed there to heal him, heedless to the danger she was getting into.

Meanwhile, Tsunade was cursing. At one side, Naruto was taking out her Shinobi. On the other hand, the crow was also causing massive casualties. With the elite Shinobi like Kakashi only able to hold him for a while.

On the top of all that, her foolish apprentice rushed right in the front of the enemy.

Just as the Hokage was about to move to go and tangle with the demon to save Sakura, (So she could berate her later,) the boss summons and their respective elders arrived, and surrounded Naruto and the crow.

“Oh, look who is here. My father is looking for your head, White Sage!” the crow exclaimed.

“Hm. Trifling child. Your father is indeed strong. But you do not present even the fraction of his intelligence or strength. Proof? You’ve aligned with this fiend.”

“Ah, very amusing. This is the best you can come up with?” the said fiend asked to the White Snake Sage.

“Do not waist the time.” The slug elder rumbled. “We must banish him quickly if we wish to evert more damage.”

Usually, The White Snake Sage would have killed any person who dared to tell him what to do. But not only the Namekatsu was the elder of the slugs, he was very powerful as well.

They also shared the same position of elders; thus, the slug had some respect from the snake elder. For those reasons, The White Snake Sage nodded.

Hearing that declaration, Naruto cursed loudly and colorfully about his opponents and their ancestors, and called Jin Wuya to his side.

“Naruto,” Yamato was saying, “You are strong enough that you can tank their banishment, that is true. But afterwards, you would be easy picking for even these humans.”

“So what? They have two of us here. They have to divide their effort.” The crow said confidently.

“That is exactly. The only reason why he can take it, is because they have to divide the effort among you two.” The sword explained. “Alone? He does not have any chance.”

At that statement, Jin blanched. “You can’t be serious!”

“Well, these are the elders we’re dealing with. No wonder they can cause us so much headaches. If only I had the strength of an overlord…” Naruto lamented.

“Well you don’t have it. my suggestion is, we should leave while we still can.” Was the pragmatic suggestion of Yamato.

“And what do you think I have been trying to do passed three hours?” Naruto said, a frown marring his face.

“Overpower the seal matrix, with the help of the Jin, it should not be too hard.” Yamato gave another suggestion.

“Hurry up and decide,” the crow said worryingly, “They are getting ready.”

The summons was standing in a hexagonal pattern, in which both the bosses and the elders were involved. Each elder had their own boss in front of them, and they were starting to chant in some strange language which was not understood by the Shinobi.

Still, no one interfered. Who would want to disrupt the delicate balance of a ritual, and pay the price?

Meanwhile, Naruto got prepared to break the anti-teleportation seal of now deceased Jiraiya. For which he told Jin Wuya to hover over his shoulder, and supply him with the extra energy as necessary.

The chanting was growing in power. The words of removal, banishment, and basically kicking a person out were announced in the strange language.

Just as the effect reached Naruto, the demon was able to break the seal. But then, he turned around, and enduring the horrendous amount of pain, said to the people of the Leaf…

“You people are morons. First trying to capture and use me as a weapon, and when that didn’t pan out for you, banishing me. Well, that thing which your summons is doing? It is not permanent. I will come back. This time, to kill you all, as you all have made it clear that you and I cannot exist peacefully in this universe.”

Chuckling hoarsely, he then continued, “Until then, remember this gift.”

The orange glow of Hyper Beam appeared within Naruto’s eyes, which is usually hidden dew to his son glasses. But he removed them earlier because he did not want them to be destroyed during his transformation.

Consequently, the glow was present for everyone to see, and Tsunade realized much to her horror and cursing herself for the lateness, where the demon was pointing his attack.

“Hyper Beam!”

Sounding as if a highly charged laser was fired at the mountain adorning the faces of the past leaders of the Leaf, the beam struck at the Hokage monument, where below the mountain, were built the shelters for the civilians.

As the debris started to fall from the explosion, Naruto and Jin Wuya both disappeared in a bright golden flash, while burying the quarter of the population of Leaf alive beneath their own shelter.

The Shinobi, the boss summons, the elders, all watched the destruction of the monument, and the shelters beneath it, and the exit of the demon, unable to stop him.

* * *

(Next day, in the Leaf.)

The Shinobi who weren’t dead or injured within the conflict were either trying to find survivors below the debris, or working as a security. After all, a weakened village of Ninjas would make a great target for the pillaging.

A lot of them were also arranging the temporary places, and creating tents for the people to live, while the rebuilding efforts were starting.

Among these efforts, the root division of Danzo came really handy for the Hokage. Speaking of Hokage, she was holding the meeting of senior Shinobi to prepare their next strategy.

This time, when the topic of what to do with Naruto raise up again, the former order was cancelled, instead, the orders were changed to kill on sight.

Yet, some people still could not believe how much damage just one person caused, while literally being in their own village.

Among the Jonin, there was Kuranai, standing in the back listening to the plans of the future being discussed. She was not in the active ranks of Shinobi since the death of Asuma, but now that Leaf was facing a threat, she was recalled.

“The outsourcing work of rebuilding is out of the way. Anything else?” an incredibly sleep deprived Hokage asked.

“Indeed.” Danzo spoke.

Sighing, Tsunade motioned the old man to speak.

“It is vital that we find out whether Uzomaki is getting any assistance from any other hidden village.”

“I assume that you already have some suspects?” the blond asked.

“I do.”

“Investigate them as you would like.” Tsunade gave the war hawk all the freedom he needs.

If Danzo was in the favor of showing emotions, he would be grinning now. But since he was not, he just gave a grim nod.

Meanwhile, the Hyuga clan head had an ugly expression on her face. No one knew why was it like that, considering all the Hyuga’s have the same expression during the council meetings or interacting with outsiders.

But if someone were to be a new member in the council, they would still think that she didn’t used to have that expression when she joined them. then the answer they would get from the experienced members would be that, she finally learned the stoic nature of the Hyuga for outsiders.

But none of that would be true. Because she was furious at the person who so carelessly rejected her.

‘And to think I did all of this for him, became a clan head and all.’ The girl thought.

The girl looked at her teacher pityingly. ‘to think he destroyed a family before it could even start, and I supported him…’

* * *

(With Naruto.)

Appearing out of the golden flames, Naruto and the crow both fell down.

“Arg, you are burning me, get off me!” the demon said, yelping in the process.

“Fine, fine, I don’t want to be on top of you anyway. There are more interesting things on whom I would love to be on top of however…” the crow trailed off with a grin.

“Yeah, whatever.” It was not the business of Naruto to pry into the fantasies of his flaming friend.

Getting up from the floor, Naruto started to regress back to his human form.

“So, where exactly are we?” Jin Wuya asked.

The place was strange for Jin Wuya. He knew that the humans do erect impressive and gaudy structures, (He didn’t know that most of the population does not have financial resources for that,) but this was a strange place by that logic.

The floor was tiled with hard marble, and was absolutely smooth as far as the eye could go. No small gaps, no split lines.

Similarly, the walls were also made out of a smooth rock, and were colored with blue and white.

aside from that, there was a wooden door which clearly was an exit to the outside. Aside from that, there was a bed, a cupboard for the person to put their things on, if they were staying in the room.

Aside from these things, there was nothing else in the room.

“So, where are we?” the crow asked again, watching Naruto who was summoning his clothes from the dimension of his secret things.

“It is my hideout, welcome.” The demon gestured grandly.

“Isn’t it a bit… sparse?”

“I like it that way. No need to waste resources on something which I would use barely.”

“That makes sense,” the crow said. But in the truth, the crow didn’t understand the sentiment.

Opening the door, Naruto said, “You will have to wait. I will come back after I am done cleaning up myself.”

“Yeah, okay no problem—”

With a loud bam, the demon closed the door.

“In the name of the universe, I am going to teach him a lesson in humility one day.” The crow fluttered his wings in annoyance.

“Yeah, bastard left me behind as well!” Yamato said from the bed, where he was left by Naruto.

“Oh?” noticing the sword, the crow realized what a wonderful opportunity he has right now.

* * *

(Fifteen minutes later…)

“Really? He just kept underestimating him?” the tone of disbelief was clear in the voice of Jin Wuya.

The Naruto he knew… was pragmatic and ruthless individual, he never underestimates anyone, over estimating perhaps, but never underestimating.

“Yeah.” Yamato said. “He did grow out of it however.”

“Better for him.”

The door opened, and in walked in Naruto Uzomaki.

“And the subject of the conversation is here.” The crow said, lighting off and on one of his wings.

“So, how much blackmail did you collect on me?” Naruto asked Jin Wuya.

“Blackmail?” the crow said innocently, “Me? Impossible.”

Jin Wuya was radiating such feeling of innocence, that even an innocent person would doubt their innocent-ness.

The demon gave a look to the crow, and muttered. “Yeah right.”

“Naruto, what will be our next move?” Yamato questioned.

“Yeah, we did get out of there very quickly. But I am sure they won’t forget the parting gift you gave them.”

Smirking, the demon nodded. “True. Besides, I think it is time to involve that muscle head, and that woman.”

“You know that you aren’t fooling anyone like that, right?” Yamato leaned on a fourth wall a little.

“Wait. Who are they?” Jin Wuya was not getting it.

That meant he was not in the loop, and he hated to be excluded from the loop.

“All in good time my friends.”

* * *

(In the Hidden Cloud…)

A was working on his paperwork which was much reduced after he implemented the suggestion of Naruto, while lifting the heavy paperweight with his other hand.

The Raikage developed the ambidextrousness on his own, just because he wanted to change his hands signing papers, while he changed the hand on which he lifted the wait.

Someone knocked on the door of his office. After a gruff “Enter!” the person entered.

It was one of his ANBU. Which was strange, usually they just appear in his office if they have anything to report.

The ANBU took out a letter, and started to speak.

“Lord Raikage, this letter arrived half an hour ago, and after performing all the checks, is deemed to be genuine. The head of ANBU ordered me to deliver this to you personally.”

Putting the letter on Raikage’s desk, the ANBU bowed, and disappeared.

Raikage picked up, and after reading it, grinned.

“It is time.”

Motioning for another ANBU (Who was hidden within his office,) to appear.

Raikage grudgingly tolerated them. it was too bad that Darui and others were on some missions, otherwise he would have kept them in open, as he usually like to do.

Righting a letter quickly, while not breaking his repetitive weightlifting from his other hand, the Raikage handed the letter to the ANBU.

“Make sure that this letter arrives to the mist quickly.”

The ninja saluted, and left silently, making the kage shiver.

‘Why must they have to be so serious? It is like they don’t have any personalities!’

* * *

(At the other side of the world, outside of the elemental nations.)

As much as the elemental nations wanted it to be other way, there was a world outside of their borders.

It was not that the two different worlds did not knew about each other. but the nations called this side the outsiders, while the outsiders called them barbarians.

Because the elemental nations continued to be a war-torn place, it was hazardous to end up there. Thus, any person who ends up trapped there, is quickly extracted.

One would think that the Chakra would be one of the reasons for divide, one side using it freely, while the other side not having any to use.

But this was also not true. Humans of both areas can use Chakra without any problems, and applying it to solve various problems, was the second nature for the both.

The reason of divide, however. Were deeper than this.

Around six thousand years ago, Chakra mysteriously appeared on the planet, yet the elemental nations did not have any records of before that period, beyond that it was a war-torn time. But the nations outside of the elemental nations did have the records.

Of course, the barbarians did have the wars among themselves. But unlike elemental nations, instead of using old school weapons like swords and knives, they developed technology.

As their weapons became more and more destructive, the wars became even rarer.

After a one big war which nearly collapsed their society, they formed a one government for all the nations. The areas which were known as countries previously, were renamed to regions, while still having their old names.

Except they were known as regions rather than countries.

Aside from few small skirmishes with terrorists and the cyborg uprising hundred years ago, they did not have any wars like the elemental nations regularly participate in.

It was not like that the outsiders did not offer them to help them to overcome these issues. But the feudal lords, too involved in their struggles for power, refused them each and every time.

Using the military of both Samurais and Shinobi, the lords waged more brutal wars, while the world outside extended its reach towards space and nearby planets.

As a result, the elemental nations earned the contempt of the outsiders, while the nations hold them in contempt for being soft.

But this did not mean that the world of outsiders did not have any military. They did have a military, and they dealt with the external threats, while keeping an eye on their unstable neighbor.

The general of the united forces, as the military was named, was waiting for the report of the developments on the elemental nations.

general Kasparov has held the position of general for five years now, and among these five years, he has acquired the reputation of being one of the most pragmatic and ruthless generals in recent times.

The report was to be delivered by the captain Ken Thompson, the person who was the in charge of the intel division of the army.

The office of general was very well organized. In fact, Kasparov took a lot of pride on his organization skills, for which he was put on this position, and his office reflected that perfectly.

At the right side, there was an entire cupboard filled with the files and records of the previous operations, while the left side had a wall where the general had put the framed pictures of the figures whom he admired, or took inspiration from.

It was a tradition by this point that every newly appointed general would put his or her own framed pictures on the left wall.

The back wall of the general’s office was covered with the trophies and meddles he had acquired over the years of his service.

The desk of the general Kasparov was not covered with haphazard piles of paper, instead it was neatly organized and well kept.

The half of the desk was covered by a laptop, which has the computing power of which the elemental nations can only dream of.

The general heard some footsteps outside of his office, and leaned back in his chair. Usually, if anyone wanted to meet him, they would take appointment from his secretary. Even if they had an appointment, his secretary would still inform him about the arrival of the person.

But captain Thompson did have the clarity to meet him without such formalities. When they started to work with each other, the captain made it clear to general that their meetings should be kept private where possible, because often the intelligence leak happen from these places of formalities.

The general not seeing anything wrong with the logic, agreed, and ever since then, the captain arrives and goes without even the knowledge of the people working in the building.

The captain knocked on the door, and after getting permission from the general to enter, finally entered into the office.

The first thing he did after entering was to give a crisp and professional salute to the general.

“At ease, soldier.” Came the commanding voice of the general.

The general motioned the captain to take the chair in front of his desk. after which, he finally took the chair in the front of general.

Thompson, unlike general, (Who was tall and imposing,) was the man of average height. If someone looked at him in a room full of people, then he would appear to be very unassuming and bland.

Indeed, within his own words, Thompson was one of those people who would just stay back and observe people, rather than get involve themselves. This was the reason why he got to the position he was now holding.

Getting the papers out of the suitcase which he carried into the office, Thompson shuffled them to organize the information he had, before presenting it to the general.

General, having the reputation of being a neat freak himself in some circles of military, approved this habit.

“So, captain,” he finally rumbled. “What do you have for me?”

“Reports coming from the elemental nations… are concerning to say the least.”

The general was immediately on attention. He was not expecting these to be the first words of the captain upon his question.

The captain continued. “Apparently, one of our technologies was hidden there.”

Taking a breath, the general asked. “Which technology?”

The general was hoping that it wouldn’t be something too destructive. Who knows what kind of havoc would those power mad feudal lords cause if they had that technology?

“From the cyborg rebellion era.” The captain said.

‘okay, still not bad. Perhaps it would be something small scale? I can hope right?’

The general did not let his thoughts show up on his face. not letting the captain to know what was going on his head, the general asked the next question.

“And what exactly is hidden there?” the general asked.

Unfortunately for the general, the captain had even more bad news for him.

“It is Gigantor.”

Leaning back on his chair, the general breathed a sigh of frustration. “Please tell me it is not somewhere unstable?”

“As far as I know, it is not. But the situation can change quite quickly.”

“Meaning?”

“The stability of the nations is at an end; a new war is about to start.”

“well, as long as they don’t know about that monstrosity of a technology, I hardly think that would matter to us.”

“Yes. But there is a group who is looking into the things which they have no part in looking into, and they are getting uncomfortably close.” The captain was implying more uncomfortable things now.

“Okay, who placed the weapon there?” the general asked, the urge to strangle that person very strong within his mind.

“According to the record, previous minister. Wanting to make sure that his public reputation was kept good after the war, he hid the machine there, and claimed that he destroyed it.” the captain told the information blandly.

“Sigh… and he is not alive anymore for me to go and rale against him for such a moronic decision.” The general sagged in disappointment.

“Quite.” The captain agreed.

“There is more, isn’t it?” the general knew that it was one of those days.

“Yes. Remember I said that the peace is at an end there? It is because of this boy… who became a demon.”

General Kasparov looked at his captain.

“You know Thompson, if you’ve been wanting a vacation for a while, there are less absurd ways to ask for it?” the general said with one raised eyebrow.

But the captain remained stoic.

“Oh god, you are serious.” Just like that, that eyebrow was drawn in a frown.

“Indeed.” Opening his suitcase again, the captain took out a book.

Putting the book to the desk of the general, he said…

“You might find the information present in this book interesting.”

The general, of course know what book was on his desk.

“A bingo book? That is surprising captain. I didn’t know that your reach extended that far.” Kasparov said with an impressed tone.

“The credit entirely goes to the Yukihiro Matsumoto.” The captain said humbly.

“Ah yes. He is a fine operator, isn’t he?”

“Yes. I have ensured that if something were to happen to me, he will take my place.” It was vital that the intelligence unit is headed by a competent person.

“Fine choice.” The general approved.

“Thank you general. Now, go to the section N of that book.”

The general opened the book and flipped the pages until he found the section described by the captain.

“Who am I looking for?”

“A teenage boy, age approximately fifteen or sixteen.”

There were many people listed in the book. Some of them very popular and dangerous targets, some of them just small flies.

Among them, the general finally found the person described by the captain, after flipping some more pages.

“Blond hair, sunglasses, dressed very casually?” Kasparov asked to confirm.

“Yes, that is him.” The captain confirmed.

“Doesn’t look like a demon to me.” The general said.

Raising one eyebrow, the captain asked, “Oh? Who does he look like to you then, general?”

If the captain would have asked this question in any other situation, then the general would have punished him, as the rigid discipline of the army demanded.

But since they were alone, and no one was there to witness their meeting, general let it slide.

Actually, this isn’t the first time something like this had happen. The reason why the captain so freely asked general a question… was because off the records they were more like friends rather than officers of the military. General Kasparov’s logic was to make sure that he was close to the head of intelligence department, so he would know at once whether there is something he need to watch out for, like a mol in the department.

“Hm. If I were to describe, I will say he looks like a normal teenager. The kind which you see on the streets every day. Though there is one exception. He looks like one of the people from our side.”

“True. But returning to the previous point, yes, it is confirmed that he is a demon.”

Frowning the general asked, “Do you have any proof?”

“I do. Few months ago, this boy was sent on a mission. It is not very well known what exactly happened in that mission, but he became a demon there, murdered his team leader, and went rogue.”

General Kasparov’s face looked like as if he tasted something bad. He really did not like the use of the child soldiers by the other side.

“There is another thing.”

“Oh?” now what?

“Yukihiro confirmed that this boy was the former Jinchuriki of the Leaf.”

“No wonder that he went rogue then.”

The entire military knew what the Jinchuriki word means. Created by sealing a demonic entity within a human body, they are the strongest and the most destructive people in the elemental nations.

People who are closely related with the leader of a village, are often the ones who are turned into a Jinchuriki. But the bad treatment by the rest of the population, and constantly kept as a political nuclear bomb, while the entity itself playing havoc within the mind of the sacrifice, does a real number on the sanity of these people.

“Noting his nature, how sane is this boy?”

“Very sane. Aside from few eccentric quirks.” The captain said.

“Well, don’t all of us have some?” the general said, while looking at the captain meaningfully.

The captain did not respond.

“But this is not the only confirmation I had about his turning into a demon.” Thompson expertly dragged the conversation back to the track.

“Do tell?”

“He walked into the Leaf by his own will, and was convicted on a public trial. Yukihiro had a civilian agent there, so he saw the entire event until the trial was over.”

“This boy handled the people worth entire military base on his own. And he also transformed into an entirely different form. However, the bingo book does not mention any of that.”

“The strangest thing however was the fact that he kept saying that if the village stop considering him their property and stop coming after him, then both of them will not see each other’s faces again.”

“The response was less than favorable I guess?” the general knew how militaries hate to let go of there weapons, living or otherwise.

Thankfully, considering the technology they have developed, they did not need to go through such drastic measures.

“Yes. Because of that, the entire Leaf was leveled. Though they are still not destroyed.”

“How did that happen?”

“Unknown. The spy needed to get out of there quickly, otherwise he risked getting killed. We do not know how the battle ended, but we do know that it ended in the favor of this boy.”

Up to this point, the general did not take a closer look to the information present within the bingo book. He wanted to hear all the facts from captain before he did that. thus, the general Kasparov started to read the bingo book entry of one Naruto Uzomaki.

Name: Naruto.

Surname: Uzomaki.

Father: unknown.

Mother: unknown.

Rank: Genin.

Physical information:

Height: 5FT 8 IN.

Weight: 60 kilograms.

Hair color: blond.

Eye color: blue as a human, gold as a demon.

General appearance:

Uzomaki appears generally in casual clothes, comprising of black shirt and black pants. Though sometimes the colors may change from white, as well as blue.

He also wares sunglasses most of the time, under which he has his demonic golden eyes. he also does not keep his hair long, instead keeping it in a maintainable length.

History:

Naruto was an orphan, who graduated from the academy of the Leaf at the very bottom of his class. Originally, he appeared to have the personality of a happy go lucky child, and as a Shinobi he had a stubborn way of doing things, rather than following orders.

After turning into a demon, he displayed cold and ruthless personality, which suggests that his previous personality was just a mask to hide his true intentions.

Wanted for:

Desertion against the Leaf, killing various Jonin of the Leaf, causing massive damage of both property and lives to the Leaf.

Orders: kill on sight.

A word of caution:

It is very important to note that Uzomaki got away from the Leaf causing massive damage in the process. Thus, it is not recommended to engage with him alone.

“And all the countries have the same bingo books?”

“Yes. But only three of them have the same orders, while other two are still blanks regarding this boy.”

“This is concerning captain. Keep an eye on the situation, and keep me inform regarding any changes.” The general said, plans forming and discarded on his brain.

“Acknowledged.”

“One more thing captain, prepare a team. We will retrieve that gigantor.”

“Very well general.”

* * *

(In another part of the elemental nations.)

On a room an old man wearing a garb of a bishop was doing some paperwork, that he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

“Enter.”

A tall man entered, by his posture and walking style, he appeared to be a soldier.

“Archbishop, the gigantor has been found.”

“Is it now? Very good. Make preparations to retrieve it. and kill whoever gets in the way.” Were the swift orders of the old man.

“Yes archbishop.” The soldier saluted.

“Also, after you are done making preparations, take a day or two off.” The man said once more, this time in a much kinder tone.

“Yes archbishop.”

Saying that, the soldier bowed, and left, closing the door after himself.

“Hm. Now to prepare the next phase of the plan, as we all know. There is no rest for the wicked people like me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General Kasparov is named after Garry Kasparov, who dominated the chess during 80's and 90's.
> 
> captain Ken Thompson is named after the guy who created UTF 8, B programming language, and most recently, Go programming language.
> 
> Also, I only need two more views to get 100 hits on this story. Would you help me breaking through that limit?


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19.  
End of the royal families.

(Within the partially built Hokage’s office.)

It has been two weeks since the disastrous public trial of one Naruto Uzomaki. And the Village Hidden in the Leaves was still suffering the consequences.

Still, the buildings of administration and military command centers were the first ones to be reconstructed quickly, followed by the civilian houses.

‘Too bad that bastard killed Yamato. His help would have been invaluable.’ The Hokage thought.

The Hokage was signing the papers just like a possessed woman, there was none of the laziness and sluggish behavior she displayed before. but then suddenly she heard the noise of a cane thumping on the ground, which was getting progressively louder and louder.

‘Finally, something good.’ She hoped.

The door opened, and entered Danzo Shimura, the head of the recently reinstated Root division. In his hands, there was a folder, which he puts on the desk of Tsunade, and when the Hokage motioned him to sit in the chair in front of her, he promptly did so.

“You have something good for me I hope?” the blond asked.

“That depends.” Was the curt answer of Danzo.

From his tone, the Hokage already has anticipated what sort of news he has for her.

“Very well. what did you find out?”

The Hokage had given Danzo the task to find who were the villages allied with Naruto.

Tsunade however, did not believed that Naruto has any ninja village on his side. Despite his power, she did not think that a teenager demon would have something to offer those Shinobi villages.

Still, when they released their bingo books, two out of the five villages still did not enter him in their bingo books, not even when they updated the order to kill on sight from capture on sight.

“As you already know, two villages do not have Naruto on their bingo books. Those villages are Mist and Cloud.”

That, however caused Tsunade to change her opinion. She still did not know what Naruto did offered them, or did for them that they would align themselves with him, (Not openly, not yet at least,) but Danzo’s word did confirmed it for her.

“What about the Rock?” she asked.

“They do have him in their bingo books, as they consider any Leaf Shinobi to be worth hunted, even if they are rogue.”

“Typical Rock.”

“Indeed.”

“But this is concerning. I do not know what is the reason why two Shinobi villages would ally themselves with him, but whatever he must had offered or did for them would be really important.”

“True. strange that none of them tried to double cross him, not even for once.” After all, Danzo was most familiar with the thought processes of the Shinobi leaders.

One does not survive for more than sixty years in the profession otherwise.

“That is exactly what worries me.”

After taking her time and skimming through the folder which Danzo brought, Tsunade decided her next order.

“Try to find why they are aligned with him, or what exactly is their future plans.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Also, this has officially got out of Domestic trouble. There are hidden villages involved in this matter. thus, prepare for war.”

There was only the slightest twitch on Danzo’s face, but he nodded. After getting a dismissal from the woman, he left.

She looked at the folder once more.

‘I can’t believe that many of the countries he managed to impress… are now aligned with us.’ She was happy that at least this was working out for them.

Motioning for the hidden ANBU to appear before her, Tsunade started to explain the order once the Shinobi was in front of her.

“Go to the public relations, and tell them to find out what smaller or bigger non-Shinobi countries would support us, if it came to war.”

Giving a nod as a sign of the acknowledgement, the Shinobi left to carry out his orders.

* * *

(On an island, near the Land of Springs.)

General Kasparov received the report that a Gigantor, a weapon from the era of the cyborg rebellion is hidden on the elemental nations.

Not wanting such a destructive weapon in the hands of the people of the elemental nations, the general sent his covert operations unit to retrieve the weapon.

Lead by admiral Kai, the force consisting of two destroyers containing some fighter planes, and five battleships snuck successfully to the island where the weapon was kept.

Captain Christopher Parks was currently reporting to the admiral.

“So, there were no complications?” the admiral asked.

“None so far.” Was the answer of the captain.

“Be careful captain, we did hear that some dangerous group know about this weapon. We cannot allow the machine monster to fall in their hands.” Admiral Kai wanted to impress the severity of the situation on his subordinates.

“Well, we haven’t seen anyone. Still, even if they showed up, we would be ready for them.” considering the forces they have brought with them, the captain was confident that they can handle anyone, or any problem.

“Good.” The admiral nodded.

Unknown to the admiral, the group about which he was so concerned, was already on the island.

The old man, simply known as archbishop, has sent one of his most trusted team to retrieve the Gigantor.

As the military approached the island, the captain was able to detect their presence through the sensors of his ships.

“Admiral, the group is over here already.” came the worried voice of the captain from the radio of the ship.

“What?” Kai couldn’t believe that.

“Yes. They are already on the island, and their ships have surrounded the island, we will have to get through them if we wish to get on the island. Not to mention, we are outnumbered.”

The admiral cursed.

“This is not the end. There will presumably be forces on the island as well.” The captain continued the chain of bad news.

“Captain, launch the fighters. Let’s see whether they can clear the way for us or not.” Considering they were outnumbered, Kai has to play this very carefully, the admiral decided.

“Acknowledge.”

“Also, be ready for combat.”

“Yes admiral.” The captain got ready to prepare the ships for the combat.

On the ships near to the island, the leader of the forces of the archbishop was receiving the report about the military force approaching them.

“Holy Knight, they are launching the fighters.” The aid was reporting.

“Hm. That means they are trying to clear the way to the island.” He said. If he was on admiral’s position, he perhaps would have made the same choice.

Taking a moment to observe the situation, he gave his next orders.

“Concentrate the fire on the ships. Those planes wouldn’t be able to do much if they don’t have the support of the ships behind them.”

“Yes, Holy Knight.” The aid acknowledged the orders.

“Also, as soon as the team on the island is done, get them on the board and provide the cover fire for their escape.”

“Acknowledged.”

As the ships got close to the group on the island, according to the orders of their leader, they began to fire. They did not let any ship close to the island.

The fighter planes tried to drop the bombs on them, but they got intercepted in the midair without doing any damage.

Similarly, the military was also able to intercept most of the missiles and torpedoes thrown their way, suffering only superficial damage. But their main objective, getting on the island, was still out of their reach.

Meanwhile, on the island, the soldiers of the holy knight managed to find the Gigantor. Knowing in advance that this machine monster would be too big to take with them by conventional means, they have prepared a giant sealing scroll.

This was the advantage about which the military of the alliance did not know yet. That is exactly why when the soldiers started to board the ships of the opposing side, the admiral was surprised.

He was expecting a big contraption, or any other mechanical solution, not a folded scroll.

Just like the orders of the Holy knight, the ships which were not occupied by the soldiers who have the scroll containing Gigantor, started to cover their retreat with covering fire.

The military was not in any condition to give chase. It was clear that this mission was a failure. Out of five fighters they launched, three of them were shot down. Thankfully, the pilots were able to get out of their planes quickly enough.

The admiral started to give his next orders.

“Salvage the wreckage of the fighters. We cannot allow the technology of our planes to get in the hands of the locals. After which, be ready to depart.”

The admiral was really depressed that his mission failed like that. but this was not the time to break down for him. He must first take his forces out of here, then he could break down in the privacy of his room.

“Yes admiral.”

“Also, give me the damage report.”

* * *

(One month later, with Naruto.)

Naruto was in the Hidden cloud. After his escape from the Leaf and the public trial fiasco, he was preparing along with his allies to make the next moves.

After all, not giving the other side any chance of getting their footing back, Was the sentiment throughout his life.

“So, finally we are holding the meeting?” the Raikage was asking.

“Yes.” The demon confirmed.

“God, I can’t believe it has been two and a half years.” the Raikage sighed.

“and I can’t believe that I managed to stay out of the Leaf’s grasp for three years.” Naruto also sighed.

The place of the meeting was a business city between the Cloud and Water. The Mizukage was just about to arrive.

As far as the locals were concerned, this was the business between two hidden villages. They did not ask too many questions, knowing that was not good for them. not only from the business standpoint, but for their health as well.

Both Raikage and Naruto were waiting on a hotel which they rented for this meeting. After all, they were the leaders of their respective villages, certain level of ham was expected, no matter how much Naruto protested.

Few hours later, Mei Terumi the Mizukage of the Hidden Mist village, finally arrived. seeing her, the Raikage couldn’t resist the remark:

“You’re late.”

“I was—” the woman tried to answer, but was interrupted by the sound of Naruto’s palm hitting his forehead.

“Don’t you dare!” the demon said. He did not escape from the prison to experience the same behavior!

Both Shinobi looked at each other, and snickered at the demon.

“So, ha, ha, funny.” Naruto said in a deadpanned voice.

“Oh, come on, you can’t take a little bit of ribbing?” Mei asked.

“Naruto?” the Yamato interrupted the conversation, “Who is the hot woman?”

Raikage by this point was used to Yamato. But Mei was not, causing her to look around for someone who might be spying on them.

Summoning Yamato from his dimension, Naruto showed the sword to the both shadows.

“Yamato, meet Mei Terumi, the Mizukage of the Hidden Mist. Mei, meet Yamato, the ancient demon sword.”

“Nice to meet you.” Yamato said, politeness dripping from his voice.

“Charmed.” The woman said sweetly.

“Please don’t act too impressed, he has a bit of an ego problem.” Naruto muttered.

“Me? Having an ego problem? It wasn’t me who nearly—” Yamato went to remind Naruto about his blunder with Itachi.

Hastily throwing the sword back in his dimension, and blocking the sound, Naruto managed to avoid Yamato revealing the truth about how he barely survived from Itachi.

It seems that Yamato was not going to let him live that one down.

“So, where are your guards?” the demon drawled, in a transparent attempt to change the subject after handling Yamato and behaving as if nothing happened. “I can’t imagine they would let go of their Mizukage so easily in front of a demon and a Kage of another village.”

“Well, they did protest, but I managed to convince them otherwise.”

Naruto shivered. He was very well acquainted with her convincing methods.

* * *

(Two hours later…)

“So, they weren’t willing to hand over the power, hm?” the demon was really disappointed after hearing that.

Because by all means they would have been a puppet leadership, but it wasn’t as if they would have made their lives hell or something. In fact, Naruto even managed to convince both shadows that if they agreed to their demands, they should provide protection for them.

“That is the problem.” Raikage said.

“But I already warned you about this, didn’t I? they have been holding the power for a long while. Old blood would not give in so easily.” Mei said.

“Hmm, then the only way which is open to us is the elimination of the royal families.” Naruto said.

“But we would still need a face, a face behind which people would rally.” Raikage reminded.

“Do you have anyone in mind like that? you wouldn’t mention it otherwise.” Naruto asked the man.

“I do have one, yes.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“Apparently, around eighty years ago, the feudal lord of the land of water sired a child outside of his marriage. This child later escaped to the land of lightning, and married within the family of the lightning feudal lord.”

“Wait, wait, wait, how a bastard child out of nowhere married into the ruling family so easily?” Naruto was floored after hearing that.

“Details are sketchy on that.” was the reply of the Raikage.

“Anyway, through that marriage, an offspring was born—” the Raikage continued, but he was interrupted by Naruto again.

“And you are planning to use the history of this offspring to convince the people of both regions to follow our plans.” Naruto surmised.

“Yes.” At this point, not wanting to be interrupted again, he gave a simple answer.

“Great then. I leave that entire scheming to you.” Naruto said.

After all, since he already had planned all of this out in such details, there was no need to change his task in the middle and derail the hole effort.

“Then I am supposed to kill the both families?” Mizukage asked.

“Yep.” The demon agreed.

“Great. what would be my reward?” she asked in a sensuous tone.

“I don’t know, a hot load?” Naruto answered.

The woman started to lick her lips in excitement.

“From Raikage of course.” Naruto said quickly.

She took a look at the man. “Hmm. Not bad, but I think I’ll pass.”

“No offence, but I would have refused as well.” He rumbled.

“Aww, and here I thought that I would get to see some relationship drama by you and Mabui…” the demon trailed off after receiving strange looks from both of his allies.

“Not happening Uzomaki.” A’s tone was frosty.

* * *

(Four hours later…)

After getting something to eat and unwinding from the planning and plotting, Naruto and his allies gathered once more in the same room to plan and plot further.

“Here are some responses from the countries to whom we proposed to help us.” Raikage was saying, a collection of letters was in front of him.

“Oh?”

“This one is from the wave.” He said, while holding one of the letters in his hands.

“This should be interesting.” Naruto perked up a little after hearing that.

Clearing his throat, the Raikage began to read in a pompous voice, which clued Naruto a little what kind of the response that country has sent.

“’We have been subjected to torment once, and bent under it. but this time, we will not bend, or not break. Naruto you may have helped us in the past, but what you are doing currently is immoral and wrong, and goes against everything which you stood for in the past. We will not support you, no matter how much you threaten us.’”

“Pretentious bastards, aren’t they? I still remember how terrified they were of a simple business man. And now they are refusing us?” the demon was not angry. But this attempt of looking strong by the weaklings was amusing him.

“Naruto, why do you care? It is not like that country offered in the effort much anyway.” Yamato asked.

“True. but still, I helped these people once. But now they have come so far… children grow up so fast these days…” the demon shed a fake tear.

“And there is some acceptance of our proposal as well, like the Land of Vegetables, Land of Tea, Honey, etc. etc.” the Raikage interrupted the dramatics of Naruto.

“Great then. So, did we accomplished all the objectives for which this meeting was heled for?” the demon asked.

“Yes.” Was the answer of the both Kages.

“then I am off to entertain myself. Feel free to take some time off from your jobs too every once in a while.”

“Yeah sure.” Mei agreed easily.

“I can rest when I am dead.” The Raikage answered like a true workaholic.

“Suit yourself.” Giving Raikage a strange look, Naruto departed.

* * *

(With Sasuke, in Uchiha compound.)

Sasuke was introspecting his choices.

It is true that he actually joined a village which he left by his own will, and Naruto fought to bring him back.

But now, the entire matter has been turned around. Except, Sasuke did not wanted to bring anyone back, but to kill the guy who killed his brother.

Yes, he revealed the truth of the massacre of his clan, which dew to Itachi’s reaction, confirmed that what he was telling him was true.

It still did not change the fact that he wanted to kill Itachi. How dare he loved a place which demands sacrifices after sacrifices from its people, rather than his family?

Thus, having convinced by Orochimaru, the Last Uchiha, (This time, the title was much more deserved,) he joined the village.

Only to receive the thrashing from the said killer of his brother.

Yes, his pride did suffer from the thrashing. But what came afterwards was the feeling of inadequacy the likes of which Sasuke did not felt since Itachi left him alive in the same house, where his parents were killed.

As if all of this was not enough, the behavior of the rest of the population of the Leaf… angered him more.

There was the same expectation, same pandering, and same trying to curry favor with him. After all, he was the Last Uchiha. If it weren’t for Orochimaru’s foresight to keep the teen away from the population as much as possible, they might be seeing another massacre.

And what was wrong with those insane girls?

* * *

(Flashback)

Sasuke was walking on the streets of the Leaf. Yes, he was antisocial to extreme level, but no one said that antisocial people cannot take a walk on the street.

Observing the work of reparation going on the Leaf which was very disinteresting, the Uchiha just sighed to himself.

But suddenly, a girl started to dance, and a strange song was coming out of the carriage which was following her.

“Sasuke, do you love me?

Are you hiding—”

The great and terrible rage which Sasuke felt at that time… cannot be described with words.

* * *

(End flashback)

He still gets shivers down his spines remembering that insanity. What’s more, the insanity was spreading!

“Of course, they are behaving like this.” An apparition appeared within front of Sasuke.

“Go away.” Sasuke drawled.

He was not in the mood to deal with the conjurations of his own mind.

“After all, if they managed to get themselves pregnant with the little Uchiha babies, they would have another leash over their dog.” The apparition continued.

“Who are you calling a dog, loser?” Sasuke said, arrogance dripping from his voice.

“Hm. I forgot. You aren’t a dog; you are just a puppet. Perhaps, rather than a leash, they would add another string to control you.” The apparition of Naruto continued once more, completely unruffled by the attitude of Sasuke.

“What do you know about getting controlled, huh?” the Uchiha asked, finally showing some rage.

“’What do you know about losing a family?’” the apparition imitated the voice of Sasuke, saying the same words which he spoke during their fight at the Valley of the end. “’What do you know about getting controlled?’ Nice questions.”

“If you are here to mock me only, then leave.” Sasuke said, having lost the will to fight suddenly.

“Oh, but I’ve got answers for you. Don’t you want to hear them?” the apparition asked in curiosity.

“No.” was the curt answer of the Uchiha.

“First, I could have a family. Too bad it was robbed from me before I even had a chance to experience their love. Second? Since the moment I became a Jinchuriki, my entire life was about getting controlled.” The apparition continued as if Sasuke answered in yes.

“Exactly. And you have showed why it was supposed to be like that.” Sasuke said.

No answer came. The Uchiha tried to look around, but there was no apparition in sight. grabbing the cup from which he was drinking the tomato juice, he throws it to the wall of the house which he used to live in.

* * *

(With general Kasparov, outside of the elemental nations.)

General Kasparov was playing a game of chess with the supreme commander Wei Yi… and was losing badly.

The position of the supreme commander in the allied military is just below the general. While the general handles the big matters and the politics both inside and outside of the military, and assigns missions when it is necessary, the supreme commander is the one who handles the military operations purely.

Consequently, Wei Yi knew the mission assigned by the general Kasparov. He also knew the reasons for why it was assigned in the first place. And he approved of the actions of the general.

Kasparov was looking to move his knight to the square to b5. But the problem was that the square was protected by a pawn.

Any other square which the general could move the knight to, was also protected very well. Thus, in actuality the general did not wanted to move anymore. Instead, he was hoping for someone to come through the door of his office, and interrupt them, and save him from the embarrassment.

Just in that moment, captain Ken Thompson, the head of the intelligence division, walked in.

The captain saluted both of the higher-ranking officers, which they returned. After this formality was done, the general inconspicuously put the knight down, and turned to the captain who was seated in front of the general, at the left of the supreme commander.

“So,” not letting show what was happening earlier in the room, the general asked captain, “What brings you here, captain?”

Immediately, the expression of the captain twisted in a grimace.

‘Great, you really wanted to curse the fate, Kasparov? Whatever embarrassment would have been worth it if I had a news that the mission was successful.’

The captain confirmed the thoughts of the general by the words he spoke next. “The mission was a failure.”

Wei Yi took a sharp breath. ‘This does not bode well.’

“The admiral Kai did not take it well I assume?” the general asked.

“No, he did not. Ever since he returned, he has been depressed.” The captain answered.

“Send him to the therapist then.”

“Yes.” The captain nodded. The real challenge would be to convince the admiral in the first place.

“What happened in the mission by the way?” the general continued the questioning.

“They were close to the island where the machine monster was hidden. But before they even arrived, the group which we suspected of wanting the Gigantor was already there, and they surrounded the island.”

“Then a battle ensued. The group had already had its personnel stationed on the island before the arrival of our forces. They took the machine within a sealing scroll, and covered their retreat in such a way that we couldn’t give chase.”

“By the sound of that, it feels like they were outnumbered.” Wei Yi commented.

“Yes commander, they were. The entire island was surrounded.” The captain said.

‘Curses! I should have never played this game; things never turn out well when I play this game…’ was the thoughts of general. Of course, nothing like that showed on his face.

“This is not all. I found that the group did used to operate from our area, but recently all the operations of them has been shifted to elemental nations.”

“What could they want from there?” the commander asked the general.

“Likely trying to take control of that region.” The general answered.

“We can’t allow that to happen. One group to have the control of that region and resources.” Wei Yi said, quite worried with this development.

“Exactly. Bring us more information, captain.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Do you have the name of the group captain?” the general asked curiously.

“I do. Apparently, they are calling themselves the Order of the Holy Sword.”

“Pretentious pricks.” Wei Yi muttered under his breath.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After leaving both of his allied Kages, Naruto got back to the Land of Fire, to have some fun.

This was the first time that he was in the capital. The hustle and bustle of the city was quite different to Naruto who was raised within a Shinobi village, and who spends most of his time in planning, plotting, or participating in battles.

Of course, he was causing his own brand of havoc within the city.

Changing the road signs, stealing from the high nosed merchants and blaming it on someone else, irking the animals of the caravans so badly that they ran into each other, all the while laughing madly from the chaos.

“Now, this is what I call relaxing.” Naruto sighed, while the people around him just ran around to take care of the problems caused by the demon.

No one suspected him of course. Naruto wouldn’t allow himself to be caught by these people. He would never live that down.

But soon enough, Naruto got bored of the city, so he decided to leave for somewhere else. He still has a rather large amount of time to pass.

As he was getting out of the city, he passed by the temple where he found Yamato.

“Hay look Yamato! Your old prison.” Naruto said excitedly.

“Please don’t remind me. Why don’t you focus on something nice, like an orgy or something?” Yamato sulked.

“In time my friend.” Naruto was about to continue with the suggestion of going and meeting the monks, while transformed of course.

But before he could do that, he saw a monk coming down the steps of the temple. The monk was prepared, as if he was going to travel somewhere.

The young monks are often sent to travel, to get more experience within the life. But this monk was by his looks appeared to be a senior one.

So, Naruto just went to the monk, and asked politely, “Going for the travel?” the demon asked, walking besides the man.

“Indeed. I am going for a funeral service.” The monk answered serenely.

“Oh, they tend to be quite a sad affair.” Naruto deflated after hearing that, as any normal person would.

“Ah, but every one of us have to go one day. It is best to pray for their peace, rather than hold them here and turn them in to a restless soul.” The monk commented sagely.

‘I wonder whether the sights where the battles of the old Shinobi wars are filled with ghosts? Or those Shinobi who die within the fields, turn in to ghosts?’ Naruto thought inwardly.

With a snap, realizing what an opportunity he was presented on a silver platter, Naruto appeared behind the monk, and before the man could even react, he grabbed him, turned him around, and put his finger on his forehead.

“Ssshhh, just relax, and reach into nirvana, hahaha…” Naruto said to the struggling monk.

Naruto perfectly knew where was the funeral service, and for whom it was heled. Thus, to amuse himself even more, the demon grabbed this chance with both of his hands.

* * *

(In the funeral service, at the Hidden Leaf.)

The people were gathered within the funeral services of the Shinobi who died on the escape of Naruto. There were not only members present of the prominent clans of the Leaf, but the civilian families as well, whose members were the part of the military.

Hokage as the leader of the village, was also present to grieve for the people who payed the price for her decisions.

“Today,” the monk from the fire temple was saying, “We have gathered here to wish peace for the souls of those who have departed this land, while doing their duty.”

The crying and sniffling which was so prominent throughout the field until now, was entirely quiet after the monk started to speak.

“But not only they were loyal, but foolish as well.” at this, everyone started to look at the monk strangely.

Little did they know, this was just a start.

“For they not only chose a profession of death and misery, they even believed the propaganda promoted by this village’s foolish leaders…”

“How dare you insult us like that!” not able to take it anymore, someone commented from the crowd.

“Easily. Now, where was I? oh yeah!” the monk began again. “They even demonstrated their foolish nature when the enemy offered them the solution of peace, rather than violent. In my life as a monk, I have never met such a peaceful demon before.” The monk was on a role.

“You are getting out of the line now. Best to stop there when you can.” Tsunade said finally, being quiet so far because it was ill manners to insult the monk who was doing the funeral services for you.

“But then again, it is the people who themselves create the demons by their foolish natures, which come back to haunt them. I mean, whose idea was it to let it out that the demon was sealed inside of me? You can keep it a secret for at least two generations. But in the third generation, you fuck that up, maybe you deserved the thrashing which I gave you— oops!” by this point, Naruto realized that he was referring himself openly.

“You! What are you doing with the monk?” Tsunade couldn’t believe it.

“Nothing. but as the last words I would like to say in this body, boom!” Naruto said.

“What? Everyone, get—” Tsunade tried to order.

Booooooooommmmmmmmmmm!

The warning of Tsunade came too late, and the body of the monk exploded like a bomb, injuring many people in the process.

But Hokage was the one who got it worse. Since she was standing so close to the monk, she suffered a lot of shock wave damage. As a result, she was knocked out.

* * *

(Few hours later, within a hospital room.)

“That bastard…” Tsunade was snarling, “He not only spat on the sacrifices of the people of this village, he even disturbed their final departure!”

Then, Orochimaru entered. “Calm down Tsunade.”

Tsunade in return, throws a flower vest at him, which the snake Sannin barely managed to caught in time.

“This is no longer the time to be calming down. Call a five Kage summit, where we will declare him an international criminal. And any country which did not agreed with us, would be considered the enemy of the Leaf.” The Hokage declared authoritatively.

Orochimaru sighed. He was not sure what his teammate was thinking to accomplish by this, but he honestly did not saw any value in that meeting.

‘Well, I knew that a war was imminent, but this just insured that it would come much quicker than anyone thought.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not only you guys broke the 100 views milestone, I also got my second kudos for this story.
> 
> Still, looks like no one is willing to talk about this in the comment yet.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20.  
A day in the limelight.

(With Hanabi Hyuga, near the Hokage’s office.)

The Hyuga clan had experienced upheaval which the clan has not seen in a very long time.

It all began, when one day, Hinata Hyuga, the eldest daughter of the previous clan head Hiashi Hyuga, suddenly out of nowhere closed herself within the main branch library. A library which has the secrets of the most powerful techniques of the Hyuga clan.

After that, she out of nowhere challenged her father for the right to rule over the clan, and beat him within the duel.

Things however, did not end there.

Once she became the head of the clan, Hinata branded every one of the main family who constantly doubted her previously with the cage bird seal. Not even elders were spared from this treatment.

Hanabi Hyuga, the younger sister of the Hinata, quite enjoyed that spectacle. After all, those elders have been pushing around their father for as long as she could remember. When Hiashi would question them on this, they would often bring the fact that they have lived through the era of the warring clans, the era in which monsters like Madara and Hashirama were born.

Of course, Hanabi didn’t thought these elders to be like those two, no matter how much they might try to portray themselves like that. she was sure that if Madara or Hashirama ever fought with these old fools, they would end up like so many nameless Shinobi, dead and buried beneath the ground.

What did hurt her however, was the fact that Hinata branded their father with a cage bird seal as well. She didn’t even bother to listen to what he has to say, or how much he argued behind the doors to make sure that Hinata was not marked by the seal.

Yet she did that very thing to him. Not only that, she took it one step further, and marked her younger sister as well, all while smiling like a fiend.

This of course, made Hiashi quite depressed. The former proud clan head barely ventures outside these days.

But this was not the end of trouble for Hanabi. She wasn’t sure how, but Hinata somehow managed to strong arm the Hokage in to making her a single Genin, without a team. Considering the recent hardships which the village has suffered, there were not many Jonin left free to train the upcoming generation. Thus, she was not only without a team, but she was without an instructor too.

At least she still has enough skills to make sure that she could perform D rank missions, and if need be, some easy C rank missions.

The girl was just returning from one such mission, some D rank about making sure that the supplies were catalogued correctly or not. She was deeply hoping that she would get something different this time.

“Hanabi Hyuga reporting the success for the D rank mission of cataloguing the supplies.” The girl said, and put the report on the desk.

“Ah, good job.” Tsunade said, glad that the young Shinobi were working so hard.

Hanabi turned to the Hokage, who was currently working with the Chunin manning the mission desks. “Now, there is another D rank mission: go catch the cat of the wife of the feudal lord.” The Chunin at the desk said, and handed her another scroll with the details of the mission.

Hanabi winced. The last time she had that mission, it did not end well for her. Still she nodded, and prepared herself for the difficult task ahead of her.

As she was moving towards the exit of the office, the voice of the Hokage stopped her.

“Wait there Hanabi, I wish to talk with you.”

The girl stopped, and slowly turned around. She was not sure what would be the reason why Hokage would say something like that to her. As far as she was concerned, Hanabi had nothing to say to Tsunade.

“Talk about what, lady Hokage?”

“How are you settling in the life of a Shinobi?” she enquired.

“Good…” was the simple answer Hanabi gave.

“You don’t have to worry about it. no one would say anything to someone else, if you have any trouble, you can tell me.”

Hanabi nodded slowly. “I would lady Hokage. May I leave for the mission?”

“You may.”

Watching the young Hyuga leave, Tsunade sighed.

She really didn’t have much of a choice to deny the request of Hinata. The girl not only seem to have snapped, but has gone mad. And her madness was extracting vengeance from Hyuga clan for every small slight.

Of course, she wanted to do something with Neji as well. But at that, the Hokage put her foot down. She cannot allow a girl to cripple one of her Jonin for the sake of her revenge.

‘If it were Sensei in my place, he would have never let her walk all over himself.’ She thought self-deprecatingly.

The weight of another bad decision was put on the shoulder of Hokage. To make sure a girl develops into a Shinobi with a team, or to satisfy the anger of a mad clan head, in a bid to keep peace.

As much as she hated this, Tsunade could not allow a rift within her forces now of all times. With another sigh, she prepared for the Hokage summit which was two months away. She needed to decide who would lead the village in her absence.

* * *

(With Raikage.)

Raikage was sitting on his desk, doing paperwork and making preparations for the upcoming plans.

There was something to be said about the person who despite his age, brought harden Shinobi under one banner, and was even now making plans which the said Shinobi were following.

Thinking about all of this brought him to the memory when Naruto first arrived in the Cloud around two years ago, when he was just fourteen.

Naturally, when an unknown person appears within the hidden village, all the alarms start to blare loudly. This was the reason why he was dragged in chains in front of Raikage.

When he explained why he was there, who he was, how did he arrive there… Raikage was about to blew his top. He may not be the most intelligent Shinobi, but he was not the fool that he would believe the tales about demons, hidden doors, and cunning demon container who managed to deceive his own village, and was now standing in front of him, proposing him, the Raikage, to join his side.

Seeing that the Raikage was not convinced yet, Naruto proposed an even more ridiculous idea.

He would fight with Raikage to prove his conviction, in a single combat of course.

Raikage, seeing nothing wrong from the proposition, agreed. After all, if the boy lost, he would take over him, and made him the latest weapon of the Cloud. And if the boy through combat managed to convince him, well there was nothing to think about then.

But he didn’t want to appear as a bully. Thus, he agreed that if Naruto managed to wound him once, even the lightest scratch, then he would agree to every single proposition he had. Naturally, Naruto managed to accomplished this, though he nearly died in the process.

Once he woke up from the unconsciousness suffered dew to the damage within the battle, Raikage was on his side, and with an oddly peaceful smile, agreed to the demands of the future demon.

After that, through the support of Raikage behind him, Naruto managed to take over several profitable business ventures, through which he helped Mei to overthrow Yagura, securing her support in the process. After that, the alliance was formed.

Rest, as they say, was history.

‘Sigh… remembering all of that was really stressful. Maybe Mabui is up to some relaxing activities?’ thinking about such activities got him excited, So Raikage left his office to find his secretary.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After nearly disrupting the capital, and tampering with the monk, Naruto was in his way to the Leaf. Right now, he was in the middle of the Leaf and the Tanzaku town.

“Seriously though,” Yamato was saying, “I can’t believe that you’ve got the will imposing so easily.”

“Well, the technique does seem to have its roots in soul manipulation. And you already know that I can do that.”

“No not really.” Was the casual dismissal of Yamato.

“What?” Naruto, of course was not happy with such casual dismissal of one of his skills, through which he became a demon without dying in the process.

“Yes, you can extract the soul from a living creature, absorb its power, and see its memory. But you can’t do anything else. But you do have the talent for the skill, I’ll give you that.” the sword explained further.

“I really need to traine more.” The demon muttered.

“You do.” Yamato agreed.

In Yamato’s opinion, the sooner Naruto starts to train using the knowledge of Yamato, the sooner he can get more stronger, and develop his skills further.

“So, who are these ‘mages?’ you seem to be afraid of them.”

“Afraid? Me? Do you know who I am? Yamato, the dark demonic blade, is not afraid of anything!” Yamato said in a boastful tone.

“Not even the pink scabbard?” Naruto asked with an evil grin.

“Fuck you with a Ping-Pong paddle, Naruto!” Yamato roared.

“no thanks.”

The sword was trying to think something to avert the attention of Naruto from the pink scabbard frantically. Yamato took a look around himself. You know, to get inspiration? Seeing something, the demon blade caught the chance with both of his nonexistent hands.

“Hay Naruto? Is that a girl?”

“What? Where!” the demon perked up immediately, and lost all the interest in mages and pink scabbards.

“There, to your right, with a cat.” The sword showed him the direction mentally.

Naruto looked around himself, and after finding the said girl, he started to observe her.

“Yamato, she is a child.” The demon said in some disappointment.

“No, no, you don’t get it. that girl offers amusement, don’t you see?”

“Why?” the demon did not see how she could be any sort of amusement.

“Remember that girl who you knocked out within your sell?”

“Hinata?”

“That one, yes. She looks a lot like her, don’t you see the similarities?”

“now that you mention it, but what is she doing here? We are not exactly around the Leaf.”

“Seriously? Look around yourself, I can’t believe that you managed to survive this long with that poor sense of surrounding.” Yamato said in a derisive tone.

Ignoring Yamato’s ribbing, the demon looked around himself. He observed that there was a forest on both sides, a road on which he was standing, the road cut through the forest, and reached to the…

“Yikes! Why didn’t you tell me Yamato?”

“I thought you knew!” the sword hollered.

“Well maybe you should pay more attention to your surrounding then.” Naruto said sagely.

“Me? It is not my job. I am just a sword, that is your job—hay that girl is getting away.” Yamato suddenly pointed.

“What? No!” saying that, the demon started to chase after the girl.

“Chase the amusement, don’t let it get away!” the sword was encouraging in a frantic tone.

Increasing his speed, the demon appeared close to the girl. He changed his appearance, and just when she was about to enter into the village, he appeared before her.

Walking towards the girl who was just about to enter within the Leaf, Naruto commented in his transformed appearance…

“Ah, a Shinobi. Haven’t seen one in quite a while.” He nodded towards the girl, all the while keeping certain level of respect within his eyes.

At this, the girl stopped.

Usually, if some stranger appeared before her like this, she would have never talked to that person. But in the recent times, Hanabi has gone through the testing of both her pride and her clan, not to mention the guy was most likely looked up to the Shinobi.

She remembers her lessons in academy about this exact situation. As well as her father’s lessons: civilians often would be afraid of the ninjas. But some of them hold admiration for them.

These people, despite being civilians, are not to be taken lightly. Thus, if one of them approaches a Shinobi, they often show them same curtesy. After all, that person for all they know, might turn out to be a future client.

Keeping all of this in mind, Hanabi replied. “Well, you are about to enter in a Shinobi village. You will see a lot of us.”

“I know.” The stranger replied. “I used to live here once upon a time, I even attended the academy, sadly I was turned out to be not fit for this job.”

“Not many people are.” Hanabi nodded.

After all, she knew that even if she is from a Shinobi clan, the challenges and sacrifices demanded of her, are often harsh.

While walking towards the gate, they both chatted about the random things. Until the stranger asked about the cat who was being quite difficult to control.

Squirming and snarling, Tora the cat tried to flee from the human, the human who would return him back to that large devil, who would try to crush him again.

“Ug. Calm down already.” the Hyuga said in some annoyance.

“Wow, he was so docile few moments ago, look at the guy now. I guess the rumors were true.”

“What rumors?” Hanabi gritted out, while trying to make sure that the cat did not flee from her.

“Oh, that cat is quite famous even among the civilians.”

“I knocked him out with my clan’s technique, I didn’t think it would wake up so soon.”

“Hmm! Would you give me the permission to try something?”

“As long as you don’t kill him.”

“Don’t worry, he is going to be alive alright.” The stranger said, with a devil’s grin.

Approaching the cat who was still struggling for his freedom in the arms of Hanabi, the stranger puts a finger at the top of his head. Slowly but surely, his struggles stopped.

Hanabi was looking at this stranger in wonderment. This was not the first time she has been sent to catch this damnable cat. Yet just by whatever this guy did with his finger, he managed to calm him down.

Looking at him gratefully, the girl thanked the stranger. “Thanks for calming him. Are you sure he won’t die by whatever you did to him?”

“No, he won’t.” the stranger assured.

“Good. I am Hanabi Hyuga, and if you need my help in some matter, you may come to me.”

“Hmhmhm. I definitely would. My name is Kenta Kobashi.” “Kenta” chuckled.

“I’ll remember it.” the girl said and disappeared in the village.

“Hm. Two options, deal with security guards, or just sneak in the village. I think we both know which one I am going to pick, right Yamato?”

“I think you have unhealthy obsession with this place. You just keep coming back to it, no matter how many times you leave it.”

“Ah, but this is my birth place, Yamato. I can’t forget it?”

“Whatever.” If his wielder wishes to get imprisoned once more, who was he to question him? Especially when those ladies keep visiting him?

* * *

(With Tsunade, in the Hokage’s office.)

When Tsunade gave the order to Danzo to prepare for the war, he promptly followed her orders without any delay.

He assessed the military, and put the ninjas who are willing to listen to orders in top position. He felt that Sarutobi should have been more like his student. Many of Danzo’s troubles would have been easily solved that way.

But he did remember that it took the betrayal of a Jinchuriki to make her come around to his thinking. If he knew that this will be the thing which would push her in this direction, Danzo would have made the arrangements to make the Jinchuriki disappear a long time ago from her eye, while keeping him as a secret weapon.

Putting all of this aside, he suggested to the Hokage to make more allies with small countries, both Shinobi and otherwise, and make sure that whichever hidden village had their back, wouldn’t have a reason to abandon them now.

Of course, this results in small and insignificant countries, which won’t even get attention from the big power like Leaf, suddenly receiving much more generosity from them.

One of these countries is Land of Claws. But this country was neither strong enough to send a Chunin as a messenger, and is most certainly not important enough to warrant a Jonin messenger.

Danzo, not wanting to get involve himself in something so mundane, left Tsunade’s office quickly, all the while not letting the expression of hurry show up on his face.

This left Tsunade to think who could she send to Land of Claws to ask for the support of that countries feudal lord.

His army might be useless to them, but at least they could secure the supply roots and such through his support.

Right in that moment, Hanabi entered with Tora in her arms. “Hanabi Hyuga reporting, mam.”

At this time, there weren’t any Chunin in the office, unlike earlier when Hanabi was handed this mission.

The eyes of Hokage came and stopped at Hanabi, contemplating something. The situation was very strange for the girl. Noticing the cat in her arms, Tsunade commented…

“I see you have retrieved the troublesome pet.”

Hanabi wanted to scream in agreement, but considering that she was in the presence of Hokage, she refrained herself from doing so.

Tsunade, however. Understood the expression on the face of the girl, so she just winked. But soon enough, the Hokage straiten herself and asked Hanabi.

“So Hanabi, are you ready to receive a C ranked mission?”

Hearing that, Hanabi’s heart leaped in joy. A C rank mission meant a long-term mission, a long-term mission for which she has to be outside of the village, a mission which would make sure that she wouldn’t have to be in her clan compound, which felt like a prison to the young girl recently.

“I except.”

‘Checkmate.’ the Hokage thought to herself.

an Hyuga sent for this mission, even if they were a Genin, proved that Leaf was taking the Land of Claws seriously. Which means that the insane feudal lord would at least think deeply before making any decisions.

Tsunade beckoned the girl to come forward, and receive the letter, adorned with the seal of Hokage on at the envelop.

“Give this to the lord of Land of Claws, okay?”

“I would.”

“Since you’ve just completed two D ranks one after another, take some time before you leave. You wouldn’t want to be weary in the way and caught off guard by other Shinobi, would you?”

“No.”

“Good, dismiss.” Tsunade waved her hand.

Hanabi left. She would first go and take a nap, after which she would make her preparations and leave for the Land of Claws, all the while hoping that she wouldn’t have to face her insane sister.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair. ‘That take cares of one thing.’

While she didn’t tell the girl how much time she had before leaving, in truth she wouldn’t mind if Hanabi left until the next day. It was very important that the girl was properly rested before leaving, especially since she didn’t have a Jonin sensei, or teammates to rely on.

Tsunade in if it was any different situation, wouldn’t have sent her alone for the mission like this. But she didn’t have much of choice, at least that is how she justified her decision to herself.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

The demon stayed within the Leaf village in his appearance in which he approached Hanabi. Currently, he was sneaking through the hot springs, to show Yamato the wonderful vision.

“wow, look at the variety!” the sword commented in amazement.

“I know, right?”

But as much as they enjoyed that activity, it was clear sooner or later that Naruto and Yamato would get bored of it.

Thus, the demon found himself roaming the streets of his former village.

Yamato, getting annoyed at Naruto’s aimless walking, decided to suggest something.

“Hay Naruto?”

“Yeah?”

“Isn’t there something else we could do here besides walking aimlessly?”

“You know what, you’re right. I shouldn’t do that.” Naruto thinks for a moment. “Well, there is this girl I would like you to meet…”

“Oh yeah? What are we waiting for then? And who the hell is that girl?”

“She’s a real piece of work, believe me. quite good with the imagination as well.” The demon explains, while losing himself in fantasies of the past for a moment.

“Then stop talking, and get moving!” the sword was excited to meet this mysterious girl.

“To Yakumo’s house then!”

“Of course, you do— wait!”

“What now?” Naruto asked annoyed. He did not like to be interrupted once he sets his mind on a task.

“Isn’t that the same girl whom we met earlier?”

Naruto looked around, and after spotting Hanabi, told Yamato, “So what?”

“Let’s follow her.” Yamato suggested.

“What? Are you mad? Do you realize what would it do to my reputation?” the demon could not believe his sword.

“What reputation?” Yamato asked for curiosity’s sake.

“Look. I might be considered evil, mass murdering, reviler of my own village. but I won’t follow a girl for your strange amusement, a girl I may remind you, is not even a teenager yet!”

It took a while for Yamato to understand how his wielder was taking this. After he understood, he was horrified.

“Are you mad? That wasn’t my reason at all!”

“Then what was your reason?” Naruto asked.

“She has potential.”

“Potential?” this was interesting.

“Yeah. Unlike her sister, that girl is strong, both mentally and well, I haven’t seen her fight yet, so I can’t say about that, but still, don’t you think we should scout her?”

“Then give her the offer to join my side?”

“Exactly!”

“Hmm! You know what? You have a point. Let’s follow the girl then. I just hope that no one finds out.”

“Don’t worry. If anyone gives you hell for this, just stab them. I find it to be the best way to win any argument.”

“Hahahahaha! Me to. Well Yakumo side quest, you must wait for a while.”

Thus, the demon started to follow Hanabi, who was just leaving the Leaf for her mission.

* * *

(Next day.)

The Land of Claws was not a close country to the Leaf. Thus, it was natural that it would take anyone, whether ninja or not, some time to get to the country.

Thus, it was not a surprise for Naruto that the girl decided to stop in an inn in a small town.

The fact that she was wearing her headband which marked her as a Shinobi, definitely helped in the process to acquire a room without too many questions. The civilians know that it was better not to ask too many questions whenever ninjas are involved, even if they are children. After all, if they are a kid, then it would also stand to reason that they would have an instructor somewhere near.

Naruto, of course didn’t have much trouble acquiring a room for himself in another place nearby. It wouldn’t show if the girl saw him too early, now would it?

‘You are starting to remind me of Orochimaru, lord pedophile.’ Yamato mocked mentally.

‘Two words, pink scabbard.’

‘Strange, did you hear anything Naruto? I most certainly didn’t.’ Yamato replied nervously, making Naruto smirk.

After spending the night in her room, Hanabi was ready to reembark on her journey to deliver the letter to the Land of Claws.

But this was where her smooth journey was interrupted most harshly.

She was attacked by the bandits. Now, no bandit worth their brains would ever mess with a Shinobi, even if they are Genin. It just was too much hassle, not to mention, the loss of life.

But seeing a lone Genin, without any teammates, or a Jonin instructor, proved to be too much of a temptation for them to resist. Thus, resulting in Hanabi’s current situation.

Naruto, was of course observing the fight from nearby, being very impressed by the skills of the girl.

Hanabi was an unstoppable blur of movement, getting in between the attackers, striking them, and getting away swiftly. She also was managing to take out multiple of them at once.

But her problem was that the bandits have numbers on their side, and she was still just a Genin. A Genin, who managed to take out the one third of their numbers, either knocking them or killing them, (She didn’t have the time to think about killing other humans at that time,) but sooner or later she was going to get tired, or trip.

Unfortunately, that moment appeared earlier than she thought. In one of her attacks, her gentle fist stance was interrupted. That was all the time the bandits needed to capture her.

“Well,” Yamato said, “Guess the show is over.”

“Who said?”

“Well, ‘the girl full of potential’ just got grabbed by the bandits, so…”

“Hmhmhmhm. Think big my friend.”

“What?” Yamato did not get what Naruto was rambling about.

In answer, Naruto teleported in just some four hundred meters within the path of the bandits who were taking many people as slaves, and made himself appear helpless and weak. As soon as they approached closer, he started his sales pitch.

“Oh, mighty warriors! I am nothing before you’re might, pleas spare my life!” striking the weakling pose fifteen, Naruto proclaimed dramatically.

After hearing that speech, the leader of this group started to sport a strange expression.

Usually, people would run away, try to fight, or do any number of things to escape. But this man, just dramatically proclaimed that they could capture him.

“Men, capture him!” he ordered. ‘I’ll let the boss deal with the weird one.’

This was how, Naruto Uzomaki, demon extraordinaire, got captured by the measly bandits who did not have any training what so ever.

This was of course, so amusing for Yamato, that the mental laughter of the sword was constantly ringing within Naruto’s mind.

‘You do know that I let them deliberately capture me, right?’ Naruto asked, annoyed.

‘Never gonna live you this one down!’ the sword sang.

Hanabi, of course saw who was the person these morons captured recently. She couldn’t believe that it was the same person who helped her with that damnable cat. She of course for her gawking, received a harsh push to keep walking, for which she gave a withering glair to the soul who performed such an act.

After arriving to their hideout, the prisoners were promptly banged up in sells, while the bandits left to celebrate such a large find.

There was not any doubt in anyone’s mind, they were going to be sold as slaves. They would be lucky enough to find the masters who wouldn’t be cruel.

But let’s be honest, people don’t buy slaves to be nice to them.

Hanabi being a Shinobi, scoffed at the prison facility of the fools who captured her. After being thrown within her sell, it took her only five minutes to get out of the chains. After that, it was simple to pick the lock, and the girl was free once more.

She couldn’t do this in front of the bandits, because she would have been captured again immediately. But from her current position, the Hyuga girl has a chance to leave safely.

At least she did not lose the letter which she still has to deliver to that damnable feudal lord. Her capture did not give the bandits enough time to search her. But first, she needed to free that guy who helped her. She couldn’t leave him behind.

‘Pss, pss, Naruto, that girl is coming.’ Yamato interrupted his wielders ranting which has been going on for half an hour about he did not get captured by the bandits unless he wishes to, and that his sword should respect him more.

The demon saw Hanabi approach with a raised eyebrow. Once she got close to the gate of his sell, she started to pick the lock.

“What a strange situation to find you here, Kenta, wasn’t it?”

Naruto smirked. “Indeed. Wasabi wasn’t it?”

Hanabi acquired a red hew to her face. “Hanabi.” She said frostily.

“Ah yes. Thanks for reminding me. My memory is terrible, this was one of the reasons why I was thrown out of the academy.”

“Not surprised there.” The Hyuga said sarcastically.

With a clang, the lock was undone, and the girl walking up to the prone Naruto, started to remove his chains. After he was free, the demon got up and stretched his back, cracked his joints and sighed happily.

“This has been a while since I got captured.” This statement caused Hanabi to look at “Kenta” strangely.

Yamato wanted to say many things, but the sword has to restrain himself. It wouldn’t do to interrupt the fun of his wielder, now would it?

“What? Don’t tell me you have the habit of getting captured by the low lives?”

“Actually know. Most of my captures… are much more fun kind.” The disguised demon said in a strange way.

‘Naruto, she is still twelve.’ Yamato chided.

‘Relax Yamato, I was just joking.’ Naruto assured, but the sword was not convinced.

Hanabi, not understanding what the demon was talking about, gave him a strange look. “Anyway, I can’t free all of these people, and I need to leave this place.”

“Hmm! Tell you what, you just find the way out, while I deal with this bunch.”

“Sounds like a great idea to me.” After saying that, the Hyuga walked out of the sell, and disappeared within the darkness of dungeon.

When the prisoners realized that there was a Shinobi among them, they started to hope that they eventually would get free. They started to hope that they won’t be sold in slavery anymore.

Too bad that the Shinobi left them with a demon.

“Hm. What to do with you?” said demon gave the people a considering look.

Many of them cowering in the fear, some of them were letting out whimpers. This individual does not seem to be the kind who would leave them alive.

Getting annoyed by the constant cowering and whimpering, Naruto said, “Be quiet.” Couldn’t they see that he was busy thinking about their fates?

Instantly, the silence descended on the place. Only to be broken by the sound of melting metal, as Naruto moved his hand from left to right, destroying the doors of the sells which kept the people inside.

“Now, I will release one of you from the chains. That person would release the others, and then you all would leave. Understand? There is going to be a slaughter in this place. Trust me, you don’t want to be here when that starts.”

If there were any demands of this person should free them and take them out of this place, they died right then and there. Besides, this person is appearing to be much more dangerous than the Shinobi child.

Doing as he said, Naruto freed one of the prisoners, and left them to their devices. If they managed to survive or not after this, it will be up to their own good fortune.

‘Now to see the second performance of that girl…’ the demon thought excitedly.

“Seriously, you are starting to remind me of that snake fellow, again.”

“Pink scabbard.”

“That is an injustice, you can’t seal my lips. People have the right to know!” Yamato exploded.

“Hmhmhmhm. Too bad they have run in to the governments who are hellbent on defanging that right.”

Yamato sighed. “That was supposed to be a joke.”

“Don’t you know? I was joking as well.”

“Well, it didn’t feel like it.”

“Well, that is because your sense of humor is inferior. Don’t worry, with few thousand years with me, you will get the fine art of black humor.”

“You! How! Me not inferior!” Yamato could not believe that someone would call him inferior on his face.

“Be quiet.” The demon said, while observing Hanabi.

The girl was sticking to the shadows, and managed to arrive within the central part of the hideout, where apparently celebrations were in full swing for a while.

‘She has good potential, but she needs some more training, a guiding hand perhaps?’ the demon noted, as Hanabi was spotted by one of the guards.

‘And let me guess, you want that hand to be yours?’ Naruto didn’t reply.

Luckily for the Hyuga, the guard was alone, and she struck him down quick enough that no one noticed. After all, alcohol was flowing freely, she doubted that anyone was sober enough to notice anything like that.

Hiding the unconscious guard in an out of the way place so the drunken morons would not stumble on him accidentally, the girl continued to try to find the exit.

But she actually doubted that she would get out of here. This was clearly central part of their hideout, whatever ways there are to get out of this place, they most certainly are not here.

Which meant she would have to fight tooth and nail to get out of here, and perhaps make her first kills as well.

As the plans of Hanabi reached completion in her head, the leader of the bandits appeared on a podium like place. In actuality, it was nothing so fancy, just some high place where he was standing, brandishing a crude and deformed sword, as if it was rejected by its blacksmith.

The celebrations quietened as the leader began his speech, which was considered nothing more than drunken rambling by Hanabi… until he began to speak.

“Today, is a great day for celebration, for I Naruto Uzomaki, not only single handedly caused havoc within the Hidden Leaf, but my wonderful comrades even managed to get a large group of slaves!”

The crowd let out a thunderous cheer at that declaration, while Hanabi was looking as if she never understood the world, as if all which she believed in… was nothing more than her imagination.

Meanwhile, Naruto who was observing all of this from the shadows, started to twitch, and started to grumble to himself that just because he wanted his freedom does not mean that he would suddenly start to sell other people into slavery, and people should really not steel other people’s achievements and brag so loudly, unless the real person was around and decide to hunt them down.

Meanwhile Yamato the dynamic sword wonder, was cackling within the mental world.

‘Oh, look at me. I am big bad Naruto Uzomaki, I will sell you into slavery!’ Yamato was making an impression of the leader of the bandits.

‘And look at me, I am his evil sword!’ Yamato said in a pathetic voice.

Things for Hanabi, however were not going well. Not only she has to hear the stupid speech of this moron, who most likely run his tail between his legs if real Naruto showed up, she also got spotted, just because she stumbled on an empty bottle. The bottle caused a clattering sound to echo within the silent hideout.

naturally, all the bandits immediately realized that there was someone who was not welcome here. Thus, to deal with the problem, ten of the drunken men, who were more sober than their allies, set out to deal with the fuming Hanabi.

“Screw the stealth.” The Hyuga muttered in anger.

Taking an offensive gentle fist stance, and ignoring her exhaustion, the Hyuga promptly laid out five out of the ten bandits.

Naturally, the remaining bandits had immediate reinforcement, while the Genin was alone. It was clear to the observing demon that she won’t last long. Still, he wanted to see how long she could last, this was the entire reason why he was here after all.

surrounded by the bandits, Hanabi decided that it was time to bring out the big guns of the gentle fist.

thus, the demon got to see the vacuum palm, and also the sixty-four palms, through which Hanabi managed to kill five of the bandits. Though the girl was so swarmed with the danger that she did not have the time to process any of that.

her resistance however, came to an end when her exhaustion become too much that it could not be ignored anymore. The girl huffing and panting, sat down, not having any strength to resist what was coming for her.

“You caused me a lot of trouble girl! Not only you trashed my party, but you killed many of my men! Once you’re dead, I’ll dug your eyes out and sell them to the highest bitter. I am sure the eyes of an Hyuga would fetch a hefty price, enough to recover my losses.” The Naruto wanabe leader said furiously.

Hanabi, at this point, was beyond caring. So, what if she was about to die? She won’t die whimpering in fear. No, that is out of the option. She did not fear when her sister in her madness, enslaved most of her clan, including their father. She did not fear when she became a Genin without a team, or an instructor. So, she was not about to start now. She did wonder however, how could a letter delivering mission of all things could go so bad?

“Your mother would fetch a hefty price.” She said in retaliation.

If there was a crowd watching this in some drama, there would be people cheering her right about now. But this was no drama, the only people here were the bandits, their moron of a leader, and a hidden demon who was watching this like the audience of a demented theater.

“You miserable!”

“Hahahahahahaha! I was right wasn’t I Yamato? That girl got not only talent, but spunk as well!”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

Hearing that laugh, and those two voices caused the Hyuga to go still, as if she couldn’t believe her luck.

She did not fight with Naruto directly, but she did saw the destruction he caused, not only that, she also heard his bouts of crazed laughter. She remembered the voice of Yamato from the trial, how the sword tried to play lawyer on his wielder’s behalf, yet got shut down harshly.

As the bandits were observing this new player who was walking out of the shadows, he spoke again.

“As for you, you miserable shit.” Naruto said, looking at the boss of the bandits, “Next time you want to steal someone else’s achievements, make sure that they aren’t around to take offence of that.”

“Oh yeah? Who do you think you are? No one talks to the boss like that and gets away from us.” One brave soul said.

The said boss on the other hand, was whimpering in fear at the words of his minion. Maybe he should have listened to his friends, and become an honest farmer? At least that way he wouldn’t have to face a demon.

As the words of jeering continued at the demon, Naruto took a deep breath, and said, “Enough.”

The leader walked up to Naruto hesitatingly, and started to stammer.

“Um, l—listen Mr. Uzomaki, this is just standard practice, you understand. We meant no offence by that.”

After hearing the word “Uzomaki,” there was a silence within the hideout so deep that you could hear a pin dropping at the ground.

“Naruto, no mercy. Not only he insulted you by using your name, he insulted me as well! I am no way that deformed and ugly!” Yamato said, in an enraged voice.

“Well, you heard the sword, no mercy.” Yamato appeared on Naruto’s hand.

“Wait, please—”

In one swift motion, the head of the leader was relieved of his body. And then began the slaughter the likes of which Hanabi, or indeed any Genin has not seen since the third Shinobi world war.

After the bloodbath was done, the demon looked at the girl at the ground, who was trembling. Though it was because of her fear of him, or because of the entire ordeal, Naruto could not tell.

“Now, what to do with you?”

“We both know what you’re gonna do, so can we skip the theatrics?” Yamato asked.

“Theatrics? How dare you call my way of the demon theatrics?” the demon was full on ranting mode. “Do you have any ideas how many enemies I have beaten by using my way? Or how many people submitted just because they were in the presence of me.”

“Yeah, yeah, just talk to the girl, will you?” Yamato was not impressed.

Naruto grumbling and cursing about how the ancient demon swords not respecting their wielders, came closer to Hanabi. Though she barely has enough energy, the girl still stood up from the ground, and took a stance of gentle fist.

“Don’t come any closer.” She tried to say threateningly, but she could tell that it did not came out the way she intended it to be.

“Or what are you gonna do?”

“I…” Hanabi thought for a moment.

It was a great question. What she could do to a demon who was unstoppable even when the entire village of Shinobi was against him?

Yet she was here, a Genin, not even a prodigy, still within her fighting stance, not wanting to die like a coward.

“I don’t know what, but I am sure you won’t like the results.” She finally answered.

Three seconds of silence ensued after that declaration of Hanabi, after which the silence was broken by the roaring laughter of Naruto.

“Hahahahahahahahaha! Now if only your sister had shown such a spirit.”

“What?” the girl was very confused at this point.

“I am sure she didn’t tell anyone. But she came to my prison cell when I was there. She was willing to promise all sorts of things to me, the village, the world, but she lacked a very fundamental thing which I look on the people around me.”

Hanabi strangely enough, could not stop herself from asking, “What?”

“Willingness to stand up for yourself. It is all fine and dandy when I am manipulating someone from the shadows to rely on me, and use me as their crutch. But it is a seriously big weakness when that same person wishes to be on my side, and as soon as I am in the trouble, crumble down in to the helpless weakling.”

Done with talking, the demon approached Hanabi, not at all worried by the threats of the girl as he came closer and closer.

Reaching his hand, in one smooth motion, he took the forehead protector of Hanabi off, to confirm his suspicion.

Hanabi, really tried to fight the attempt, or simply tried to get some more distance between Naruto and herself. But the demon putting one hand on her shoulder, stopped her struggling.

“So, she did give everyone that seal, didn’t she?”

Putting one finger on the seal known as the Caged Bird Seal, Naruto started to move his finger in a strange pattern. Hanabi, of course, was very uncomfortable with such a dangerous enemy being so close to her, and doing who knows what with her seal.

“Not creepy at all.” Yamato could not stop himself from saying so. Although, his comment did not help Hanabi.

“Pink scabbard Yamato.”

“I’ll go to sword union I swear!” Yamato said, with the conviction of those who have nothing to lose.

With a sound of lock clicking open, the demon cheered. “Aha! No seal can stand up to Naruto Uzomaki!”

“W- what did you do to the seal?”

“Why removed it of course, can’t have someone like you under such a barbaric thing, now can I?”

“Impossible!” Hanabi knew that no one has succeeded in removing the seal, since many captured Hyuga have been experimented by their enemies to break the seal, all without any result.

Getting angry now, Naruto summoned a mirror from his pocket dimension. “Fine. Look at it for yourself.”

With that, the demon released the shoulder of Hanabi, and started to sulk and grumble about how people don’t really respect his talent.

“Wait, why do you even have a mirror on you?” Yamato asked.

Getting out of his sulking, Naruto replied, “Why, to admire myself of course!”

“Narcissist!”

“First comments about me being like Orochimaru, now calling me narcissist, are you sure that you are not holding a grudge for something?” Naruto asked his sword.

“No, I am not!” Yamato said in a petulant tone.

Naruto was just about to reply to Yamato, of which he was sure that it was going to be a long argument, but both of them have to dismiss their clashing of words, because they were interrupted by the shocked exclamation of Hanabi.

“It, it really is gone! I am free, the seal is gone!” Hanabi could not believe it. the seal which has been a thorn on her side for past few months now, is really gone.

“Well, of course it is gone. What did you think? That I was playing a trick or something?” Naruto, who was quite proud of his sealing skills, (As well as any other skills of his,) asked in a self-assured tone.

“Well, I, that is to say,” the Hyuga couldn’t come up with anything.

“Tell you what. I will escort you until wherever your mission is. A young girl shouldn’t travel alone in the current climate, even if she is a Shinobi.” Naruto said generously.

“Err. I am sure the older Kunoichi would have been fine.”

“Yeah, but look at her Yamato, she doesn’t have a team, she doesn’t have a Jonin sensei either. And she looks like someone is barely out of academy.” Naruto tried to sell the point with a teary look.

“Can’t argue with that.” Yamato, of course, was not affected by his wielder’s theatrics.

But the points which he made cannot be disputed either. And besides, wasn’t observing Hanabi’s potential the entire point of all this?

Turning to Hanabi, Naruto asked, “So, where are you going?”

While her mind was screaming at her that she should not tell anything to this demon, he is her enemy, and you do not tell the details of your mission to your enemies, her mouth decided to take the decision out of her hands.

“To the Land of Claws.”

“Hm, presumably, to ask for the support of that moron. Looks like they are really scraping at the bottom of the barrel here.”

“They are not, and you know it.” Yamato said.

“Not in the front of her, Yamato!” Naruto, blushing dew to receiving such a dressing down in front of Hanabi, by his sword no less, said.

Arguing about how the sword should actually enhance his image rather than put him down in front of people, specially girls, Hanabi followed the demon to outside of the hideout.

“Oh, I had so much fun today, I didn’t even realize that it is night time already.” Naruto said, while listening to Hanabi’s rant of how she would now need to find a place to rest.

“Don’t worry,” Naruto chimed in the middle of her rant, “There is a nice place in the nearby town. I am sure you would enjoy the service there.”

“And of course, that would definitely be not because of you own that place?” Yamato said smoothly.

“Fuck you Yamato.”

“Language! Not in the front of children.” The sword chastised.

Hanabi wanted to interrupt, she wanted to say that she was out of the academy, and by the laws of the Shinobi, she was no longer considered a child. But both the sword and wielder ignored her attempt of saying something. Instead, out of nowhere, the demon grabbed her, and teleported both of them to the nearby town.

Getting the room for one night, Naruto was thinking what to do with the girl. He couldn’t allow her to roam freely, if she came across any Leaf Shinobi, he knew that his chances of corrupting her would go to hell.

So, the demon decided to do the next best thing.

Grabbing the key from the hanger at the door, and putting all sorts of seals to contain someone inside a place, the demon decided to lock Hanabi within the room, while he would go and meet with someone, who for some reason couldn’t handle the underworld part of the city, despite Naruto’s assurances that the person doesn’t have to worry about anything.

“Really? You have to talk with yourself in circle as well?” interrupting Naruto’s thoughts, Yamato said.

“Of course. There are mind readers within this world. Can’t have them find out my secret, now can I?”

Right at that moment, Hanabi walked out of the shower, waring different clothes, which were in Naruto’s opinion, very civilian.

“Going somewhere?” the girl asked.

“Yeah. You have to stay here; I really am sorry to lock you here.”

“What?” she asked frostily.

“Your grounded.” The demon said, shedding a fake tear. “I know this is not the way you’ve wanted the things to be, but you have left me no choice. Just know, that this hurts me more than you!”

“Nice acting.” Yamato’s words came crashing like the cold bucket of water.

“Damn it Yamato! I was having a moment there!”

“Yeah, yeah, can we move on already? you have things to do, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Remembering the underworld problem, Naruto promptly forgot his theatrics.

“You, you’re not gonna lock me! —” Hanabi’s protests were cut short as the door promptly was closed at her face.

“You… you… you demonic bastard, get back here in this instant!”

Naruto of course by this point was gone very far to listen to Hanabi.

‘Fine. I am a Shinobi. You can’t contain me here.’ She thought vindictively.

Unfortunately, Hanabi ran afoul of the seals set by Naruto before he left.

The demon of course, did not left her alone for the entire night. He came back after hour and a half, in a very good mood. He not only gets to remove the incompetent head of Yakuza of this city, he also managed to install his own puppet leader. All and all, Naruto considered this day to be quite a productive one.

Humming in contentment, a room service guy following him up to his room, Naruto opened the door, and exclaimed,

“What a productive time. Hay Hanabi, where are you?”

In response, the girl attacked him like an angry cat, hissing in barely contained rage. Naruto of course, handled her quite easily, causing her to become angrier. The room service guy, used to the strange behavior of the Shinobi, (With also great self-preservation instincts,) did not gawk at the strange things happening within front of him.

“Should I put the food at the table, sir?”

Naruto, keeping both of Hanabi’s arms in a lock, replied, “Oh yeah. Feel free to leave.”

“Good. If you need anything, call me.” With that, he put the food at the table, and left the strange people to their devices.

Maybe he should also inform his cousin from moving within a Shinobi village? Clearly, whatever they were doing in those villages, it makes the children unstable.

Meanwhile, Hanabi managed to get out of the lock of Naruto, and was now liberally trying to use the gentle fist on the demon to make her displeasure clear. But Naruto through the smell of the food, distracted her, and after ten minutes of more snarling and struggling of Hanabi, both of them were eating the food at the same table.

After eating and spending so much energy before that in expressing her anger, the events of the day finally caught up to the young Hyuga, and she fell asleep from shear exhaustion.

But she could not stay asleep for too long, as the kills she made after her capture and escape, finally started to haunt her.

Being awake because of the nightmares was a new feeling for Hanabi, and she was not enjoying it. she also saw the demon was still awake, working on various things, observing a ring, reading from a scroll, and was it a seal he was working on too?

Hanabi did not understand why would someone work on so many things at once. But her observation was not unnoticed, as the demon after cracking his neck, came to her bed and sat down next to her.

“Nightmares bothering you?”

“Go away.”

“You shouldn’t feel guilty for them.” Hanabi, did not expected to be told something like that.

Wasn’t the talk supposed to go how it was fine to kill in the defense of yourself and others, but make sure that you don’t enjoy it, etc. etc.?

“What?”

“They were trying to kill you. Didn’t you remember the comments of the leader? He was going to sell you and your eyes to the highest bitter.”

“But the faces—” Hanabi tried to say.

“Oh, everyone makes them. see, everyone likes to kill people, lord their power over someone else. But once it is their turn, they can’t take it.”

Covering the confused girl, Naruto said, “Sleep in peace, for you are alive, and they are not.”

“Besides, people who trample on others freedom do not deserve any sympathy.”

Perhaps her Shinobi instructors would be furious at her to be so relax in a presence of an enemy, that she fell asleep soon once more. But at that moment, she could not bring herself to care.

Besides, Naruto was right. She would have been trading one prison to another one. After all, Hanabi’s current position in her clan was of course just barely above a slave.

* * *

(Next day.)

Hanabi was awake, and was now taking in her surroundings. Being a Shinobi on a mission, she did not expect to wake up in a nice room with a soft bed.

But soon enough, the memories of yesterday came crashing down at the girl. fighting and getting captured by the bandits, freeing herself from their prison, and the slaughter performed by the Naruto…

As if summoned by her thoughts, the demon appeared out of another part of the room, his hair dripping, a proof that he just got out of a shower.

“Ah, there is nothing like a nice hot shower in the morning to refresh the soul.” He remarked cheerfully.

“How would you know? You don’t have a soul.” His sword, of course was there to annoy him.

“Ah, you wound me Yamato, despite my arrangements to make you get cleaned up by the beautiful apprentices of that blacksmith, you say such a hurtful thing to me?”

“No, no, no. I was out of line, please forgive me, oh mighty and generous wielder.” Yamato begged.

“Perhaps considering how quickly you realized your mistake, maybe I would—hay she is awake!” Naruto dropped the banter with his sword like a sack of useless stone, after seeing that Hanabi was awake.

“Yeah, sure. ignore your sword for a Kunoichi who hasn’t even entered her teens yet…”

“You know Yamato, I really don’t appreciate your insinuations about my character. I have you know that I am an honest and an upstanding demon!”

Hanabi, after the events of the last day, did not have the patience for this early in the morning. So, she asked the next important thing. “Where is the shower?”

Replying to some comment of Yamato, the demon pointed absent mindedly at the far corner of the room, where a door can be seen.

Ignoring still bickering duo, Hanabi quickly got herself inside of the shower room, and by the time she got out, there was a large platter of breakfast waiting for her.

“Did you ordered all of this?” the girl asked to Naruto who was sitting at the table, apparently waiting for her.

“Of course! You are a growing girl; you need to eat. Meanwhile—”

“Meanwhile you are just a glutton.”

“That is, it! I am sealing you in a pink forge for hundred days!”

“Nooooo! Lord Uzomaki, please have some mercy!” the horror Yamato felt, cannot be described.

Still ignoring the byplay at the table, Hanabi started to eat, displaying her manners. Which just proved to Naruto that slave or not, being born in a clan was a harsh punishment.

“So, are you going to follow me all the time?”

“What?”

“I have to deliver a letter to the Lord of Land of Claws. Are you going to follow me all the way down there?”

“Well, yes.”

With a grimace, the girl resumed her breakfast.

“Though, I do have a way to solve the traveling problem.”

“What?”

“I can simply teleport both of us there. Then you can accomplish your mission, I can have my entertainment, and you can get rid of me sooner.”

At this, Hanabi looked at Naruto guiltily. But it was true. despite what he had done for her, she really did not want to be around him. Scratch that, she did not want to be around anyone right now.

“Do it then.”

“Ah, ah, ah, first finish your food.” Naruto said in a tone as if he is admonishing a child.

Hanabi just started to eat once more, all the while grumbling how she is not a child.

“All the children say that. which just proves that—”

“Let. Me. Eat!” in her rage, Hanabi nearly broke the utensils.

“Okay, okay, man someone is cranky today.”

“I am sure you have nothing to do with that.”

“Shut up, Yamato!”

* * *

(Two hours and many arguments later…)

After leaving the hotel without even bothering to check out at the reception desk, (Which just confirmed that the establishment was owned by Naruto, somehow,) Hanabi was preparing herself to be teleported to her destination.

Considering that people who do know seals are quite rare, and the people who can mess with the space and time and stay alive are even rarer, Shinobi do not get to teleport often, aside from body flicker. But no one cares about that.

“Ready for the departure!” Naruto said, putting one hand on the Hyuga girl’s shoulder.

“Wait, what? Don’t you need to prepare a seal matrix or something?”

“What are you talking about? There is no need for any of that.”

“Oh. Mind telling me how do you do that then?” the Hyuga asked curiously.

“No.” was the flat answer of the demon.

“But—”

“I may have saved you out of the goodness of my heart,” at this, Yamato just chuckled, “The girl who is the sister of insane Hinata, whose name I can’t remember,”

“I am Hanabi. How hard is it to remember?” Hanabi said, frustrated.

“But that does not mean that I will give you my secrets just like that, especially when you haven’t defected and joined my horrible and evil side.” The demon finished his spiel.

“Just, just teleport damn you.”

Flames surrounded one demon and a young Kunoichi, the last thing which Hanabi saw was the infuriating smile on Naruto’s face, before the flames covered them and made them disappear.

* * *

(At the gates of the capital of Land of Claws.)

Hanabi stumbled out of the teleport, looking at Naruto in awe. If someone could use that in a battle, or just use it in general and do not lose their balance, that person might be something. And that something would be terrifying.

Naruto, however was observing the girl in amusement. “I know. It took me quite a long time before I could use it without getting dazed too.”

The Hyuga just shook her head, and started to walk towards the gates of the capital. Which were of course, standing tall over the city in quite a grand fashion.

“It is as if these nobles are trying to compensate for something.” She muttered under her breath.

“I know, write? At least your clan has true power to back that noble façade, of course a clan of killer nobles, that is.”

Ignoring the running commentary of Naruto, Hanabi approached at the guards at the gate. Showing them her official papers from the Leaf for this mission, she declared her intentions.

“Hanabi Hyuga, Shinobi from the Leaf.” She said. Turning to her right, where Naruto was observing everything in amusement, (Doesn’t he has any other expressions?) she tried to come up with a suitable identity for the demon.

“And this is—” she was saying, but before she could proceed any further, she got interrupted by the guard.

“Who?” the guard handling her papers asked, looking at Hanabi strangely.

The guards had heard strange stories of Shinobi, silent killers who only show up in the open if it suits them. they apparently also have the power to change the entire landscapes when they fight, and of course some of them are really insane.

Or his cousin from the group of guards of the court says.

Hanabi wanted to say in her most sarcastic tone, “Oh look, he is just standing there.” But noticing that people were walking past both of them while ignoring the presence of Naruto as if he never existed there in the first place, Hanabi decided to cut her losses and replied…

“Nothing, I apologize.”

The guard started to sweat in fear. ‘If Shinobi apologize to you, make sure that you have your last will written.’ Were the words of his cousin that guard thought in his mind, while trying to show no sign of his terror.

“No—no problem…” handing her papers, the guard beckoned the next person in line, clearly done with the processing of Hanabi.

“Civilians are strange.” The girl muttered while walking away, entering into the capital.

As for Naruto? Let him deal with any complications which arise dew to his presence within this place. If she was found with him, she would use and stick with the hostage excuse as if her life depended on it, which to be honest, it would.

“More like terrified. I mean who gets terrified of one little apology?” the demon asked, walking next to Hanabi.

Before Hanabi could reply, there attention was drawn towards a strange spectacle taking place on the streets.

There was a large group of people gathered around a person, numbering in fifty or so. The people were equipped in poorly maintained weapons, and were not in any condition to fight anyone, let alone hold the weapons properly. Yet, the person around whom they were gathered, was giving a speech to rouse them for their last stand or something along those lines.

What was the strangest thing to Hanabi that the speech apparently worked, and the people rushed at the soldiers and the city guards under the employ of the feudal lord. Of course, these people did not pose a threat to them, but still, Hanabi could not believe that they still rushed at their deaths.

Of course, since a brutal extermination is no place for the normal unarmed people, the streets of the capital were cleared quickly by them. but this was not the concern of the demon walking besides the Hyuga.

“So, what did you thought about that?” Naruto asked Hanabi’s thoughts on what they have just witnessed.

“What do you mean by ‘That?’ it was nothing more than a last stand of a failed rebellion. Personally, I do think that if they can’t fight, then these weaklings shouldn’t resist.”

“You might be right. But I can’t begrudge them their efforts. At least they tried for their freedom, and that is something which I can respect.”

“Yes, yes, you like the freedom. Can we please pick another topic?” Hanabi said quickly.

Hanabi has heard many rants of Naruto about how he was only fighting for his freedom, that the Shinobi won’t leave him alone, despite asking nicely, and what does it matter whether he killed few people in the process? The Leaf in general, at least make five people disappear everyday mysteriously. So, he really did not understand why they were whining so much.

Reaching the castle of the feudal lord, which was built like a fortress, Hanabi announced her mission to the guard at the massive doors. She was really getting tired of all these pointless procedures; it is not like that these people could stop a ninja from killing their precious lord if they chose to.

Still, she waited as the announcer in the court of the feudal lord announced her name, and her purpose for coming here.

“Hanabi Hyuga, from the Leaf’s Hyuga clan, here with the important message by the Hokage herself to the feudal lord!” the man said grandly.

“Very well. We shall see the Shinobi.” Came the voice of the lord.

Rolling her eyes at the overbearing tone of the fool, while ignoring the demon who was exclaiming about things within the lord’s castle, she retrieved the letter of the Hokage from her Shinobi pouch, and handed it to the servant who came to collect it. All the while, the advisers of the feudal lord were planning how to best use this new opportunity.

Taking the letter from the servant, the lord started to read the letter. After that, he started to think for a while, after which, he suddenly said excitedly, “There is a war!”

This statement caused a murmur among the court. “All this time, my warnings were ignored, they all called me insane, people even rebelled against me! Yet, I did turn out to be right!”

“I… I see my lord…” one of the advisers said.

“Tell your Hokage Shinobi, that we will join the Leaf in their war.”

Appearing out of nowhere, Naruto chuckled. “Hmhmhmhmhm. Wrong choice.”

Raising his index finger, Naruto fired a Death Beam right into the forehead of the feudal lord, killing him before anyone could do anything.

“Did you know Yamato, that despite my manipulations, back stabbings, and general evil behavior, I never visited a court of a feudal lord?” Naruto said to his sword.

“And now that you did it, you marked the occasion with a kill, with the royal kill no less. I am impressed Naruto.” Yamato said, awe in his voice.

“Tch. Of course, you are.” Hanabi gritted her teeth. “Do you have any plans for getting out of here?”

“Easy there. No one can do anything to us here.”

“O- oh yeah? Call the guards!” one of the nobles said, bravely.

Though Hanabi did thought him a fool to grab the attention of the demon like that.

The advisers tried to follow this idea, but they were all cut down before they could do so. The servants, and the pitiful security in the court was also not spared the fate of getting slaughtered by the demon.

* * *

(Ten minutes later.)

After Naruto killed everyone present within the court, Hanabi and the demon walked out of the castle as if nothing happened.

Hanabi, was thinking how she did not care as all those people were killed one by one with the hands of Naruto. She also remarked in her head that she has in just two days, has seen more death than any Genin since the third Shinobi war.

“See? I told you we won’t have any trouble walking out of there.” The demon said smugly.

“Whatever.”

“Ah, come on now. I am sure you can say something wittier than that?”

But before Hanabi could say how the demon could take his wittiness where the sun doesn’t shine, both of them got interrupted by the people out to recruit more fighters for the rebellion.

“You two, you would do fine as a cannon fodder. Come with us.” The leader of the recruiters said gruffly.

“No.” was the simple reply of Naruto.

The demon considered the entire thing done, then the recruiter did something which changed the thoughts of Naruto.

“Oh yeah? Then we’ll take this kid. I am sure you will cooperate then.”

Snorting in derision, for Hanabi could kill all of these morons without any trouble, Naruto instead answering to the recruiter, asked a question to Hanabi.

“Say, what do you think about these people?” the demon asked, while pointing to the recruiter and his lackies.

“I wish they would disappear where I wouldn’t have to deal with them.” Hanabi said, bord.

“That… can be arranged.” Naruto said, as he started to transform in his demonic form which he took during his escape from the Leaf.

Wings grew out of his shoulders, and gloves appeared on his hands, while two horns also grew at the top of his head. The recruiter and his lackies, were too terrified to say anything at this point.

Crouching a little, Naruto beckoned Hanabi towards himself.

“What?” the girl asked, getting close to the demon.

Naruto pointed over his shoulder, emphasizing his bent back.

“You—you want me to get on your back?”

The demon nodded happily.

‘Well, might as well.’ With that thought, the young Hyuga clambered on Naruto’s back, while the demon took flight. She was using Chakra to stick on him just in case he decided that Naruto did not want her in the air with him anymore.

“Behold, the power which you must have, to remain free!” Naruto said, while closing three of his fingers of his right hand, and curling his index finger in such a way as if he was holding over the trigger of a gun.

“Galick Gun, fire!”

With a sound of a large laser getting fired, the energy beam was released from the demon’s hand, when the beam reached the capital below, it also increased in size.

Boooooooommmmmmmmmmm!

With a large explosion, the capital of the Land of Claws disappeared from the maps of the elemental nations. In that city’s place, there was only a large crater left, while the surrounding area was also damaged.

Hanabi, of course had a front seat for watching a city-wide destructive attack. ‘Maybe if I had that level of power, then I wouldn’t be branded like cattle.’

Landing in the crater softly, Naruto reverted back to his human form. Hanabi also clambered down from his back.

The young Hyuga observed how some of the rocks at the corner of the crater were still glowing from the heat, while some of them melted, and were now slowly getting back to the solid and deformed shape.

Turning towards the demon, she asked, “Why didn’t you used this against the Leaf?”

“If you do remember, I was more intent on leaving peacefully rather than cause wide spread devastation. It’s just the people refused, and it all escalated from there. Besides, I am still trying to reach full potential of my demon form.”

“Oh.” What more she could say? If this was not the full potential of his power, who knows what he could do when he reaches it?

“So, do you want me to teleport you to the Leaf?”

“No!” was the panicked answer of Hanabi.

“Okay…”

“You see, as long as I am outside of the village, I am outside of the authority of my mad sister.”

“I got it. I’ll take you to the Leaf then.”

“Not that you would stop if I asked.”

“Right on one.”

* * *

(Three days later…)

Hanabi, now standing at the road which lead to the Leaf’s gates, was currently thinking the time she had in the last week.

Who would have thought that after returning from retrieving that damnable cat, she would receive a mission so spectacular that it would change her outlook on life?

After all the death and mayhem of the first three days, where she saw an entire city disappear, she had a wonderful time with Naruto. Excluding when he was ranting about his philosophy of freedom, constant arguments with his sword of all people, (And wasn’t that a confusing thing too? Addressing a sentient sword with the words used for humans.)

And of course, how could she forget the horrible singing of both of them?

“Sun started to dim,” Naruto sang in the male section of the hot springs, yet his voice was loud enough to reach to Hanabi in the female section.

“Moon started to set.” Yamato was equally loud.

“Oh, this sky,”

“Why is it melting?” both of them sang together.

Still, she won’t deny. If the demon asked her to switch over to his side, she would not mind doing so. After all, she very well knew what was waiting for her beyond those gates.

“I guess this is good bye for now.” Naruto was saying.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Make sure to hide that you don’t have the seal anymore, okay?” the demon advised.

“I would.”

“And, contact Neji.”

“Wait, what? Why him—oh.”

“Exactly. Be careful girl.”

Not saying anything more, Hanabi walked up to the gates of the Hidden Leaf, entered into the village, and prepared herself to make sure that she wouldn’t be found out just in her first day in the village.

Meanwhile, Naruto watched her walk towards the gates, he teleported them far enough that Shinobi won’t detect their arrival. As the Hyuga disappeared, the demon left as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would really appreciate if someone suggests some Naruto stories on this site for me, preferably the ones which doesn't have the romance as their main plot.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21.  
Dangerous gathering.

(With Tsunade, in Hokage’s office.)

Tsunade sighed. She seems to be doing it a lot of these days, while spending more and more time in this office doing paperwork and planning and scheming. For a moment, she thought that Naruto most likely did the same thing, before she squashed the thought.

She did not want to think about the boy who caused her so much trouble, and was also still causing the said trouble.

Just thinking about the reparations after his destructive run, and following two months after that were nightmare for her.

Managing the government, (A government of killers, admittedly,) still took a lot of effort.

Organizing the housing for the population of the Leaf, keeping the bureaucratic Chunin in control, while making sure that her field forces did not decide to murder them, almost taxed her patience as well.

All the while, the civilian part of their organization, tried to grab more power in the chaos. It was a wonder that they managed to get things on track enough that Leaf was once more taking missions, while she herself prepared to leave for the five Kage summit which is about to take place in just four days later.

Interrupting her ruminations, Shizune walked in the office of her teacher and current boss, and just by the body language of the woman, Tsunade knew that the news which she has brought is most likely not good.

“Lady Tsunade, the capital of Land of Claws is destroyed.”

Scratch that. make it definitely the bad news.

* * *

(Ten minutes later…)

The most trusted people of Hokage were gathered within the office, discussing the latest development.

“Who exactly brought this news?” Orochimaru was asking.

“Let me check,” Tsunade shuffled some mission reports on her desk. “Oh, its Hanabi Hyuga. Now I remember, I was there when she was assigned this mission.”

“What was the mission, exactly?” Kakashi asked.

“Just a c rank for delivering a letter to join our alliance in the upcoming war.”

“Really? What was his response? Did the girl include that in the report?” Orochimaru asked once again.

“Yes. He agreed.”

“Wait, how did she survive?” Kakashi asked.

“Apparently, she was some distance away when in an explosion, the capital was turned into a smoking crater.”

“Did she used those words in the report?” Orochimaru smirked.

“Yes. And given her rank and experience, I am willing to overlook that.”

“There aren’t any words to describe it otherwise anyway.” Kakashi said.

“You people seems to be forgetting something.” The snake Sannin said.

“And that is?” Tsunade asked.

“How exactly did Uzomaki found out about the response of the feudal lord?” the mad scientist pointed out.

“That… is a good question.” Kakashi considered this.

“Actually, there is more information in the report. According to the Genin, Uzomaki before blowing up the city, said the following:”

“Let it be an example of what happens when you mess with my freedom. What you gonna do, when this demon run wild on you?”

“That proves it, that was Naruto alright.” Kakashi said.

“There was no doubt in the first place. Remember how despite our best efforts, he nearly blew up the Leaf?” Orochimaru reminded.

“Even then, he destroyed the stone monument, killing all the people who were in the shelters under that mountain.”

A moment of silence descended on the office, as they all contemplated the strength of this person against whom they were going.

“So, how goes the preparations of your summit?” the snake Sannin changed the subject.

“Well, all the villages have responded positively that they would attend. Rest, we will know once we go there.”

“Guess you’re right.”

“By the way, while I will take two of you,” Tsunade looked at Orochimaru and Kakashi, “As my guards, I would like if we take more Shinobi than that.”

“Of course, do you even need to ask?” Orochimaru agreed, though the kind of Shinobi he had in his mind, know sane leader would agree to take with them.

But then again, Tsunade was not sane, not since the trial.

* * *

(With Raikage and Mizukage.)

Since both of them planned to announce their alliance in this summit, Raikage and Mizukage did not see any reason why they should arrive separately from each other. this was exactly why both of them were leaving together with their guards.

A has chosen B and Darui as his guards, while Mei chose Ao, a Shinobi with an eyepatch on his one eye, and a nervous boy Chojuro.

Both Kages were discussing the moves of their ally as they made their way to the Land of Iron.

“So, any reason why he’s not even bothering with the usual cloak and dagger bullshit as he usually does?” the large and in charge asked.

“Maybe, because he doesn’t see a reason? Or maybe he thinks hiding will not show our confidence or something. You can never guess with him.” The woman answered.

“True. true. did you know that he nearly died by my hands just to prove that he was telling the truth, and I should ally myself with him?”

“He does have an odd way of doing things.” Mei nodded.

“Correct. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t backfire on us.” This was the concern which keeps the Raikage awake in night.

“Oh please, in eighty years, all the villages have pulled more backstabbing’s than in the warring clan era combine, and yet, we’re still here, warring with each other for smallest of things. I doubt this would change anything.” Mizukage however, did not care about such things, since apparently, she thinks that she has the better grasp of things.

* * *

(With Tsunade and her team.)

Making her way to the Land of Iron, Tsunade was preparing herself for the no doubt difficult meeting ahead of her. There is a reason why Kages, the strongest Shinobi of their village, never gather on one place. The situation just blares loudly “Landmine which would start a war!”

Just as she thought, she has brought Orochimaru and Kakashi as her guards, while Sasuke, on Orochimaru’s insistence was also brought with them. while Tsunade and Orochimaru walked ahead, Kakashi was keeping an eye on his wavered student, by walking aside Sasuke.

“So, you do know that I would have to use that, right?” Orochimaru asked.

Before they left, Orochimaru decided that it would be best if he revealed what sort of Shinobi he had in his mind to bring with them in this trip.

It did not took as much arguing about morals as much as he thought he would need to do, for Tsunade agreed after just half an hour of convincing.

This of course allowed them more leeway in who they should leave behind in their absence to keep things in order, and the village protected. Since many prominent and big names have died in quite a short time, Leaf was struggling to maintain their power.

“yes, I know. You do remember that I did gave you the sacrifices in the first place?”

“Just checking. It is quite amusing how morals are thrown out of the window when they prove to be inconvenient, right?” he just couldn’t resist that jab.

Tsunade did not reply. Of course, she knew that Orochimaru was referring to her righteous stance when he offered her lover and brother to be resurrected, and how she refused him. Yet, was now allowing the same thing to happen, to use the people to be summoned as pawns.

* * *

(With Tsuchikage.)

Anoki the third Tsuchikage of the Hidden Rock, was having a bad feeling going into this summit. As if he was walking into a war in which the sides have been chosen already, and he does not have any option of neutrality.

Considering that he has been Tsuchikage for at least fifty years, and has the career of a Shinobi for seventy years, when his instincts scream at him that he is walking on a dangerous situation, he always listens.

“So, do you have any idea what Leaf wants?” Korotsuchi his granddaughter asked.

“Most likely some idiotic demand.” Akatsuchi another guard said.

“Would both of you be quiet? I need to think.” The old man said, grumpily.

Of course, the Leaf has taken a beating recently has been in the news all over the Shinobi world. That sort of thing cannot be hidden. But Anoki had heard even more disturbing things. Apparently, the Leaf’s Jinchuriki has gone rogue, was brought into the village, and during his very public trial, caused wide spread devastation and loss of life, before fleeing once more.

This of course did not concern him much. Yes, a power like the Jinchuriki of the nine tails going rogue was a big thing, but not enough that Anoki would worry about it constantly, unless he has to face the problem himself.

The main point of concern was that the Cloud has closed the communications with Rock. While yes, both of these villages have stabbed each other in the back during the previous wars, it was all the standard practice of Shinobi. But during their existence as a Shinobi village, during all the big conflicts, Cloud and Rock have always teamed up together, or had the mutual benefit relation with each other.

But this time, things were seeming to be quite different, since the communications have been cut between the two villages entirely, and Anoki did not like that one bit.

“Did you hear though? They couldn’t even contain their weapon.” His request for peace, of course went ignored.

“I heard that he tried to leave peacefully, but they attacked him.” Akatsuchi continued this game of theirs, about who has the most ludicrous information.

“Really? I heard that he has a living sword which tried to act as a lawyer on his behalf, but got refused. It was quite miffed.” Korotsuchi revealed her trump card.

“Okay, you win.” Akatsuchi has nothing to retaliate with.

Korotsuchi smirked.

Anoki just sighed at the behaviors of his ‘Guards,’ all the while thinking that he really should have stayed away from this summit.

* * *

(In an underground lab, Hidden Leaf.)

Neji entered in the lab, looking around himself as if something is going to leap at him from the shadows any moment now.

Walking out of another room, Kabuto noticed the arrival of the Hyuga, and his paranoid body language.

“Really, you are behaving as if I am going to strap you into a table, and do horrible things to you.” The medic said, very amused.

Giving the medic an unimpressed look, Neji spoke. “That is your entire point for being here. Or did you forget?”

“Ah, how can I forget?”

Sighing, the Hyuga asked bluntly. “So, why did you call me here?”

“Oh nothing. you see, Naruto gave me a task to complete.” Kabuto said, as if he was the employee complaining about their boss to another employee.

“What does it have to do with me?” said the other employee, who, of course did not see the things the same way.

“I need specimens for testing. And I want you, to provide me with them.”

“What is this task anyway?” Neji didn’t see anything wrong in the request itself, but he still needed to ask.

“Classified.”

“You do realize that I have known him longer than you? He’ll never hide anything from me.”

“Are you sure? I mean, completely sure?” Kabuto asked with a confident smile.

“Yes, I am entirely sure.”

“Fine. He wants me to research the way for other humans to turn into demons, through biological means.”

“Makes sense. The process through which he turned himself is not exactly safe, or available for everyone.”

“True.”

“Fine. You will find a team of Chunin around the forest area at the south of the wall. How you take them out, is your responsibility.”

“Not a problem.”

Observing the Hyuga walking out of the lab, Kabuto muttered to himself. “How does he deal with him?”

Turning around, Neji replied. “Same way he deals with you.”

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Kabuto was miffed that his whispered comment was so easily heard.

“Funny how things turn out, people think that I only have my eyes. But they forget that I have my ears as well.”

“To be fare though, your clan’s reliance on your eyes doesn’t exactly give people reason to think otherwise.”

“True. but you know something?” the Hyuga asked.

“What?”

“I know why you’re hear.” Neji said with a smirk, already knowing the reaction of the medic.

“And that is?”

Neji getting on Kabuto’s personal space, whispered. “To find your purpose within his shadow.”

Turning around, the smirking Hyuga left the shaken medic behind.

Entering into the compound as if he was not out for some traitorous purpose, Neji found Hanabi waiting for him outside of his room.

“May I ask why you are here?”

“Really? That is what you say when you meet me after all this time?” asked Hanabi with a little pout.

Neji, ignoring the pout replied, “Well, we weren’t in the contact before exactly, outside of the lessons which your father asked me to give you.”

“Yes. That is true. but I have something to show you.” The girl said.

Watching as the former main branch member removed her forehead protector, Neji saw her forehead was clear, there was no sign of the seal which was supposed to be there.

“Hmhmhmhmhm.” Chuckling the Jonin removed his own forehead protector, and said, “A typ. if someone decided to use the seal on you, act as if you are in horrific amounts of pain.”

“Thanks.” Hanabi nodded.

* * *

(In the Land of Iron, in the Kage summit.)

Five of the most powerful Shinobi were gathered in this one room, with their bodyguards of course. Though one might wonder why would these powerful people need guards in the first place?

The simple answer will be to show the forces present within their villages, and show off their highest ranked Shinobi at such a high stage.

As the Kages took their places at the round table, the place of their sitting announced their intentions.

At the left of the Tsunade, sat Gaara showing his villages support to the Leaf. At the front of them were sitting Mizukage and Raikage, which immediately caused alarm bells to ring in Tsunade’s mind. At the right of the Tsunade was the Tsuchikage, reflecting his position in this whole situation. at Gaara’s left, was the Mifune, the leader of Land of Iron, sitting at the head of the table, officiating the summit.

As far as the samurai was concerned, these Shinobi can take their problems somewhere else, and leave his country out of their argument, thank you very much. Of course, he kept these thoughts within his head, locked behind an impassive expression.

Looking at Kakashi at her right and Orochimaru at her left, Tsunade prepared herself for the summit. They left Sasuke outside of the building, keeping him a secret. As far as they were concerned, there was no Sasuke Uchiha with them, and anyone who was saying otherwise was spreading rumors, and would be dealt in the Shinobi manner, getting their throat sliced open in their sleep.

“Since all the five Kages are here, I, Mifune, the general of the Land of Iron, officially start this summit.” Having said his piece, the samurai leaned back in his admittedly comfortable chair, and planned to remain quiet unless someone asked for his advice, or he has to look out for the interest of his country.

Having waiting for this cue, the fifth Hokage stood up, and began to speak. “Since I called this summit, I suppose that I should explain my reasons for doing so.”

“Actually,” the Mizukage said smoothly, “I think that Raikage and I have an announcement to make. After which, you can say all the things you want.” The woman smiled charmingly.

Meanwhile, the slug Sannin was fuming inwardly having been cut off in such a fashion. The Raikage stood up from his seat along with Mizukage, towering over everyone in the room.

“We, the leaders of our respective villages, have allied ourselves, and abolished our villages in the process.” This drew the looks of surprise from the people in the room, and some of them were horrified.

“As of this moment, the Hidden Mist and Hidden Cloud do not exist. Instead, there is an alliance called Storm Cloud alliance.”

“Bullshit!” Anoki not able to contain himself anymore, stood up and hammered the table with his fist. “There is no way that the feudal lords of your respective countries would agree to this.”

“Oh, trust me, Lord Tsuchikage. They did.” Mizukage assured.

“Not possible.” The old Shinobi dismissed the claim.

“Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant, the fact is that they did agree, and we have this alliance.” Raikage asserted.

“Oh yeah? And who exactly is the leader of this alliance?” the old man questioned, “There is no way that any of you would work underneath one another.”

“True.” the Raikage nodded.

“But we have someone else for that role. All the Kages in this room,” the Mizukage said grandly, “Allow me to introduce you to our leader.”

Spinning flames appeared at the left of the Mizukage, causing the guards of three of the Kages to tense up in a preparation for attack.

Instead of an attack however, from the flames walked out a person. Though calling this strange figure a person is very generous.

It would be more accurate to call this figure a walking turtle. The Shinobi were all stunned at such an absurd display, many of them trying to release an illusion, which was not there in the first place. Some of them were even making strangled sounds of anguish, as this strange creature won’t disappear even after releasing the illusion.

Raikage, was displaying his impressive capability of stone face, as if he was carved out of the rocks of the very mountains upon which his village stands.

In contrast, the Mizukage was grinning openly.

“Today,” the creature said in a serious voice, “I begin the takeover of this world!”

“What?” the Hokage asked.

“From now onward, my kind would no longer will be subjugated by the filthy humans—”

“We’re humans.” Mizukage said in a deadpan voice.

“Or forced to participate in their silly battles. Today, I, Lord Kame, shall take over the world!” the turtle thing ignored Mizukage’s comment smoothly, and finished it’s declaration.

For Tsunade, nothing has been going as she envisioned when she called this summit. She thought that she would be able to convince the other three Kages to side with her in the matter of Naruto. Yet, when she began to state her reasons for calling this meeting, she got interrupted by the announcement of the Raikage and Mizukage.

And as if that was not enough, this silly creature came out of the flames, (Which was quite familiar, now that she thought about it,) and now it was claiming to take over the world.

“You will never succeed.” This, surprisingly came from Gaara, who was very quiet up to that point. “The people who are gathered here, they are the strongest which the Shinobi nations has to offer. Even with the assistance of these two,” Gaara said, while pointing at the Mizukage and Raikage, “You will never succeed.”

Seeing her ally unaffected by the events of this summit, gave Tsunade enough strength to collect herself and support Gaara.

“Exactly. Leaf won’t stand by as you make these foolish claims.”

“Foolish you say?” the creature asked. “True. taking over the world is too much of a hard work.”

The last line was said in an entirely different voice. In front of everyone’s eyes, the creature shifted from its strange humanoid turtle like shape, into the body which Tsunade really did not want to see here in this meeting.

“But destroying you, that is something I can do.”

Clenching her fist, Tsunade said, “Naruto.”

“Yes. It is me. Did you honestly thought that a turtle would decide to take over the world?”

No one in the room replied, not even the ever sarcastic Anoki.

“Well, everyone is entitled to their nightmares.” The demon assured.

“Wasn’t it enough?” Tsunade asked.

“What?” where was she coming from?

“You’ve killed them. Jiraiya, Shikaku, and all the others. But it wasn’t enough for you, was it? you have to tarnish their funeral as well?” the Hokage was vibrating with her fury.

“Hahahahahaha! You can act all righteous, as soon as you ditch that guy.” Naruto said, while pointing at Orochimaru.

“And how can two of you support him? Didn’t you hear what he said? He wishes to destroy the Shinobi.” The Hokage turning to the Raikage and Mizukage, asked.

“But honestly, he curses at the Shinobi every day at least ten times. At this point, it is a background noise for us.” Mizukage said.

“Besides, when he said destruction, he means the destruction of Leaf and all of its allies.” Raikage continued.

“What?” the Hokage was surprised. Why were these two so hostile towards her village?

“Oh, don’t be surprised now. It was bound to happen. You may have cultivated the image of a nice Shinobi village, but we all know how you are. Personally, I do wish to see you be taken down a peg or two, or disappear entirely.” The Raikage elaborated.

“And, I happily would help him.” Mizukage said.

“But didn’t you want freedom? This is exactly opposite of that. they’ll use you just like a weapon!” Tsunade, failing to get through the Kages, turned towards the demon.

“And that is different from you how? I asked nicely that you all leave me alone. But you couldn’t let go of your own equalizer, could you? Well you don’t even have that anymore.”

“How could we let go? After all those people you’ve killed, Jiraiya—” Tsunade tried to iterate through the list of the people killed by Naruto, but the demon decided that once was enough.

“Ah yes, him. Funny how you always come back to his death. But let’s ignore that. remember when I didn’t kill anyone of importance?”

“Asuma—” Tsunade tried to say, but the demon was not pulling any punches, nor giving any chances to his opponent.

“Was overall a just a Jonin, you have more of them, some of them even better than him.”

As Tsunade opened her mouth to reply once more, Naruto interrupted her. “Enough. I did tell you that you can forget I exist, and I’ll do the same for you. But you couldn’t do that. so, now it leads to this. I will start a war for my freedom from you morons, if I have to.”

Looking at the third Tsuchikage, Naruto said, “And this is the only reason why you are here old man. Neutrality is not an option. either you choose our side, or theirs.”

“First of all, I don’t believe that two Kages would ally themselves with a brat like you. But whatever, that is not my problem. What my problem is, that you expect me to make a decision so quickly?” Anoki grunted.

“Very well. You can have two weeks to come to a conclusion. That is, if the other side doesn’t have a problem with it?” Naruto said, smoothly.

“No, we don’t.”

“Good then. With all said and done, Raikage, Mizukage, let’s go eat something. I hear that this country has some really good food to offer.”

With a smirk, both of the Kages got up and left with the demon.

Just after that, Tsunade and Gaara, as well as Anoki and his guards also left, leaving Mifune the only one in the room.

Leaving the room quickly, the samurai tracked one of his aids, and ordered that the Land of Iron is officially in lockdown, no one is to leave without the permission. And all the five Shinobi leaders are officially not allowed to enter the country, as well as their guards and any other Shinobi they have brought with them.

After all those orders were send out, the general finally took a breath of relief. He did not want the war to break out in his own country.

Outside of the tower, Anoki was unlucky enough to collide with the group of Naruto and Tsunade, and both groups gave the old man shivers.

“Are you sure you don’t want to make a quick decision? I offer great health benefits for the elderly.” The demon was saying.

“Yes, I am sure.” the old Shinobi left quickly.

Watching the old Kage in such a hurry, Naruto smirked, while Tsunade glared at him. Soon enough though, they were walking out of the Land of Iron, the samurais being unusually helpful in processing their documents so they would leave quickly. Of course, the Kazekage and Hokage were waiting for them at some distance.

“Did you honestly thought that you would be able to leave so easily, loser?” came a very hated voice.

“Kkukukuku. Weren’t you going to enjoy the food of the Land of Iron, Naruto?” came an even more hated voice.

Turning to Raikage, the demon asked, “They were waiting for us, weren’t they?”

“Yes. And you owe me.” The large man smirked.

“Fuck!”

A yawning sound came up at that moment in the clearing, and a voice asked, “So Naruto, what did I miss?”

“Wait. You were asleep this whole time?” Naruto asked incredulous.

“Yes. Those girls you’ve sent me to, they really exhausted me.” Said Yamato, very satisfied.

“And here I thought that you were so amazed by my wonderful performance that you were speechless.”

“Nope.”

“You missed the whole thing, Yamato.” Naruto just could not let go this.

“You do realize I can watch it from your memories?”

“Yes, well, it doesn’t have the same feeling.” The demon said sadly.

“Oh, sorry Naruto. I will be awake next time, I promise.” Yamato said, earnestly.

The demon was so moved by the honest behavior of his sword that he shed a tear. “Don’t worry Yamato. Rest as much as you like.”

While the Kages were busy bantering with each other, by which this incredibly hansom Narrator means that Tsunade and Orochimaru did most of the bantering, while Kakashi, Gaara and his siblings looked menacing in the background, Naruto’s moment with Yamato was interrupted by a harsh chuckle.

“Hmhmhmhm. Looks like your sword is just as stupid as you, loser.” The great Uchiha, of course could not let this moment continue any further, lest his attention would be taken away.

Three seconds of silence later, Yamato asked. “How exactly did you managed to be in a team with this guy?”

“It was a complicated time.” Naruto said in a monotone.

“And how complicated it was. I never thought that you would copy me, loser. If you really wanted to be strong that badly, you should have said something before.” Sasuke said, a proud smirk gracing his face.

“Wait, me, copying you?” the nerve of some people!

“Didn’t you leave the village?” Sasuke asked.

“Sure, I did.” The demon answered confidently.

“Just like I did. So yes, you are copying me.” Sasuke said, as if he knew all the truths of the world.

“That doesn’t make any sense! True that I left the Leaf just like you did, but the similarities end there.” Naruto exploded.

“How?” the Uchiha failed to see the similarity.

“You left because you wanted power, and you thought that the snake pedophile against whom the animal rights activists would make a case any time for animal cruelty performed on those poor snakes, would give you that power.” The demon ranted.

“Honestly, you make ‘Power’ sound something like you can give or take away anytime you like.” Yamato said.

“That is his thinking, not mine. Anyway, I left for I realized that I don’t want to be a weapon for the Leaf, and fight their battles for them, thus for my freedom, I left. While you came back for whatever reason.”

“Oh, trust me. They might think that I am on their side. But I will have my revenge with those elders when I have a chance.” Sasuke said darkly.

“And I guess that Orochimaru said that you would have the chance to kill me if you join the Leaf, and just like a puppet, you believed everything he said, and joined the Leaf.” The demon knew very well, which buttons to push.

“You! —” apparently, those inputs produced the correct output.

“Honestly, why are you even here? I mean I thrashed the Leaf pretty badly. So, it does make sense that the Kages of the Shinobi villages would consider me a threat and listen to what I have to say. But what have you done? You’re nothing but a Genin.” So of course, Naruto decided to overflow the system with input.

Naruto just did not press all the buttons of Sasuke. It was as if he had a keyboard in front of him attached to the Uchiha, and the demon just hammered all the commands which would induce the maximum rage at once.

and just like that, the first attack of the battle was thrown by Sasuke.

Looking the Chokuto in the hands of the Sasuke, from which the demon has just dodged an attack, the demon said…

“Oh look, the child has a new toy.”

Snarling, Sasuke channeled the lightning into the sword and prepared to cut the demon into pieces. But he was not able to do that, for the arrival of the Kazekage took both of their attention from the battle.

Sasuke was annoyed, he wanted to kill the demon, couldn’t the Kazekage see that? but Naruto did not feel any annoyance, which he proved by greeting Gaara amiably.

“Hay Gaara.”

“Naruto…”

Seeing that the teen wanted to say something to him, yet was not able to say so, Naruto asked another question.

“So, how does it feel to be alive once more?” Naruto asked curiously.

“I wasn’t dead for more than half an hour.” Gaara answered, still looking rattled.

“Was it that short? Strange. I thought it was longer than that.” the demon mused.

“It wasn’t.”

Meanwhile, all three of them saw how Tsunade said something which finally touched a nerve with the Mizukage, after minutes of back and forth, and a brawl broke out between the two Kages, while their guards could only see what was happening.

‘Here they go.’ Naruto thought.

‘Hm, I thought that Mei chick would get under the skin of that busty blond, not the other way around.’ Yamato provided his thoughts.

“Things do happen strangely in the world, Yamato.” The demon couldn’t help but speak such a profound sentence out loud.

“Naruto,” Gaara said, “Did, did everything which you said to me after beating me, were all those things lies?” Gaara finally asked what was in his mind.

‘Finally have enough guts to ask, eh?’ the demon thought.

Naruto for some strange reason did experienced the urge to say “Yes!” but crushing that urge, the demon decided that even if he was at the side of his enemies, Gaara deserves to get an honest answer from him.

“At that time, I did feel those things. I really thought that by protecting people, I would get their respect. But things didn’t turn out that way at all.” Naruto said, sadness coloring his tone.

“Though, my problem is with the Leaf really. If you did decide to leave, I think I will forget that you were ever involved in this mess.” Naruto offered for the sake of their old friendship.

Chuckling a little, Gaara replied. “I can’t abandon friends. you taught me that, remember?”

“So, you don’t consider me a friend anymore, is that it?” the blond asked with a pout.

“Yes.” Was the flat answer of the Kazekage.

“Well, what can I say to that.” Naruto said, while wondering what a great person Gaara is, to speak his mind so openly.

“Maybe for once give up and except your fate?” came a hissing voice.

“Ah, Orochimaru. Couldn’t stay away from me for too long, could you? I do have to tell you though. I don’t swing that way.” The voice, of course was most unwelcome.

“As if I would have any interest in you.” Orochimaru said, “Not that I have any such interests.”

“Nice save.” Yamato jibed.

“Exactly Yamato. I am sure that Sasuke over there would beg to different.”

“You both have an inflated sense of worth, that anyone would take interest on you, let alone me.” Apparently, the ego was still out of control in his old teammate, Naruto feels.

“And you have an inflated sense of worth that you think that I would take interest in you.” Naruto said, much to Yamato’s horror. “Though you really shouldn’t hurt Orochimaru’s feelings like that.”

“Naruto, please don’t participate on this anymore.” The sword begged.

“Okay Yamato.” Naruto obeyed the wishes of his sword.

“Once a child, always a child.” Orochimaru, was of course amused to see the scary demon Naruto Uzomaki be so obedient to his sword of all things.

“Look who’s talking?” of course, Naruto wasn’t affected by the words of Orochimaru.

Once you put the entire military force on the ropes, and escape, it does tend to give you enough confidence in yourself.

“Today, I will end the menace of Uzomaki. Lord Kazekage,” Orochimaru said the title mockingly, “I think you should leave.”

“Fine.” Gaara said, not wanting to get involved in whatever the madman has cooked up to defeat Naruto.

Just a little distance later, he was caught by his siblings and his guards, and was now getting scolded about how he should not leave his guards behind like that. as if he, who makes the sand of the desert dance at his fingers need any protection.

“You should leave as well, Sasuke.” The Sannin advised.

“I won’t. I am going to kill him.” The advice, of course, fell on def ears.

“Maybe bringing you here was a mistake after all. Leave before I use more, drastic measures.” Orochimaru said, planning to use the curse seal to bring the Uchiha to heal.

Sasuke, having been more than familiar what that fraise meant for the mad scientist, decided to cut his losses and run. He was completely confident that whatever they were planning won’t work on the demon anyway.

“And, now to deal with you.”

“Oh? Surprise me then. For your life depends upon it.” and it really does.

The demon may have been escaping the last time, but now he was in the mood to kill his opponents, not run from them.

Then, Naruto saw how Orochimaru was making hand signs for summoning technique, yet some of the hand signs were different than the usual.

Then the answer came to Naruto. While he himself has never came across this technique, he did know which technique it was. After all, it killed his grandfather figure.

“Is that?” the demon blade asked.

“Yep.” Naruto nodded.

“Summoning Jutsu, Reanimation!” Orochimaru called.

From the ground, one by one nine coffins came out, landing at the ground with a thud.

“You know, one would think that the travel at least would be comfortable.” The sword said.

“Not with him.” Naruto said, watching the coffins carefully.

One by one, the coffins opened, and the people who were occupying them walked out, alive once more in the world.

* * *

(With Raikage.)

Raikage was seeing how both of the women, despite being the Kages of their respective villages, were insulting each other like children, until it devolved into a brawl.

Mei used everything in her duel bloodlines allowed her, from the bursts of lava, to the spray of the acid, while Tsunade, Not having much of a long range offence, tried to disrupt her opponent through the tremors in the ground caused by her strength, while trying to take the other woman’s head off with her punches whenever she has a chance.

All the while the guards of the Kages watched from the sideline, not able to stop their leaders, nor able to help them.

Well, Kakashi was watching disinterestedly, while the guy with an eyepatch and the nervous reck watched in horror.

Raikage did not knew this, but ever since Naruto left the Leaf, the only expression which Kakashi showed was either indifference, or outright disinterest. So, this was not very unusual for him.

By the end of the brawl, the area was covered with the sticky lime, holes filled with the lava and acid, and debris from Tsunade’s rampage. Tsunade noticed that Orochimaru was not by her side, so she knew that he left to work at the plan they concocted, while the Kazekage was led back to them with a grumpy expression by both of his siblings.

“Bro, take a look, yo!” B pointed.

Darui and Raikage followed the gaze of B, where they saw Orochimaru making some hand signs, while coffins were getting out of the ground one by one.

Their eyes were widened, when people walked out of those coffins, and when they saw their faces. Right at that moment, Raikage realized why exactly they were isolating the demon from them.

“Mei, get over your pride. Naruto needs us.” The man ordered gruffly.

“What?” the fuming woman asked.

“Yeah, he’s outnumbered.” Darui said in his usual lazy manner.

Quickly getting at the side of the Raikage, her guards following her lead, they started to move towards Naruto.

“We must stop them from helping him.” Were the orders of Tsunade.

“Right.” Her allies nodded.

Thus, this was how Naruto’s allies found themselves facing Gaara and his siblings, Tsunade and Kakashi, and Sasuke Uchiha, the Genin who was looking out of the place among such distinguished people.

All of them however, were prepared for this possibility. Thus, they all attacked the opponents which they have decided to take out.

Mei along with her guards, engaged with Gaara, since her lava and acid would be able to deal with his sand, all the while Ao and Chojuro dealt with Kankuro and Temari.

Raikage, who was the only one among them who could face Tsunade in a competition of strength, engaged with her, while Darui kept Kakashi off his boss’s back.

This, left Sasuke and B. B, of course, was not interested in fighting with Sasuke at all, but for Sasuke, this was a great opportunity.

“So, you are a Jinchuriki, you will prove to be a great practice for when I take out that wanabe demon.” Sasuke said, lightning chirping as he prepared the variation of Chidori.

Unusual for the energetic B, he just sighed in annoyance.

* * *

(With Naruto and Orochimaru.)

Naruto saw what sort of team of undead Shinobi Orochimaru has gathered. There were dead members of Akatsuki, consisting of Sasori, Deidara, Kakuzu, Kisame, and Itachi.

On the other hand, there were four people dressed in the styles of various era of Shinobi, from the battle armor of the Shinobi warring clans, to the battle armor of a Hokage, and a blond man dressed in a modern-day clothing.

Naruto of course, recognized who they were. Orochimaru summoned the four Hokages of the Leaf, as well as the five members of the Akatsuki from the afterlife.

“It appears we’re alive once more, Itachi.” Kisame observed.

“Indeed. A very concerning development, since I was enjoying the vacation.”

“Hahahahaha! I Deidara, will show my art once more!” of course, some people were excited to be alive again.

“As if. I will prove my superiority over your art.”

“Maybe, now that Hidan is not slowing me down, once we’re done with him, I can collect some more money.” Then, Kakuzu had some horrifying thoughts. “Those bastards at the bank, they better have not tampered with my money, otherwise I will have their heaaaaaaads!”

All the five members of the Akatsuki started to argue with each other, well more like Kakuzu ranted about how bankers are evil, and they should be purged from this world, and Kisame and Itachi talked like two college buddies on a vacation, while Sasori and Deidara were the ones who were truly arguing.

“Naruto, what am I watching?” Yamato couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“A circus Yamato, a very amusing circus.” The demon said, wisely.

“Kukukuku! Once this circus starts to destroy you, you will be singing a different tune, Uzomaki.” Orochimaru was very excited at the upcoming screams of pain and mercy.

“Right. I killed all the Akatsuki members, and assaulted their village and crushed it as well, if you remember. The addition of the Hokages, admittedly is a new combination, but it won’t help you either.”

“We’ll see who needs help after this, Uzomaki!” Orochimaru screamed, no longer able to contain the excitement.

‘Man, why does he sound as if he is having an orgasm just by the thought of your destruction?’ Yamato said.

‘Lalalalala, I can’t hear you, lalalala, I can’t hear you!’ Naruto thought feverishly to block the images his sword’s comment generated in his mind.

In an effort to block out more such comments from Yamato, Naruto decided to divert his, and by extension his sword’s attention to some other matters.

“Oy,” Naruto said to the Akatsuki members.

He of course was viciously ignored.

“Oy.” The demon tried once more.

Still, the demon was ruthlessly ignored. Of course, this did not sit well with him. He had killed these people, they should listen to him, at least.

“Oy!” Naruto roared.

This finally got him the attention. Which he has been wanting for so long, for he, Naruto Uzomaki, shall not be ignored by the people whom he had killed in the past.

“Doesn’t anyone want to know how exactly Orochimaru summoned you people?” the demon questioned.

“What?” Sasori asked.

“Well, as far as I understand, you need the DNA of a person whom you are trying to resurrect, isn’t that right, great grandpa Hokage?” Naruto asked a brooding figure by Sarutobi’s side in an armor.

“Yes.” The figure said frostily. Meanwhile, Hiruzen was barely holding his laughter.

“So, don’t you want to know how he got your genetic material?” the demon asked once more, looking at everyone pointedly.

“Now that you mention it,” Kisame said.

“Oh, that was quite easy. For calling themselves S ranked, they are not as vigilant as they think.” Orochimaru mocked.

“Say that again?” Sasori asked.

“Very well. I should start with you, for old times’ sake.”

* * *

(Flashback.)

When I joined Akatsuki, I was partnered with Sasori, who was a walking talking puppet.

Apparently, he has somehow made his heart encased in a puppet body, and has been operating his puppet body that way ever since.

This, as much as it annoyed me to admit in my thoughts, made him effectively immortal, as long as his heart was safe, of course.

Before my very glorious escape from the Leaf, where my Sensei could barely keep up with me, huffing and puffing all the way, I researched the impure world reincarnation. Seriously, the second Hokage must be madder than me if he created something like that.

I knew that technique would come useful, thus I decided that I will collect the DNA samples from all the strong Shinobi I came across, living or otherwise. Thus, one day I find my partner leaving his guard down long enough that I knocked him out with a creation of mine, which basically made his Chakra nonreactive, and his brain was for all intense and purposes, dead.

I took the samples from his heart, healed the superficial signs, (I was no slouch in the medic department, even though Tsunade was the one who was known among us for her medical knowledge,) and awakened his brain once more, and walked out of the room where I performed such an operation whistling, storing the samples in a stasis scrolls, which I sent in one of my laboratories, until I need to use it, at that point my esteemed partner would be dead.

Sasori later woke up, and asked me why he was feeling unusually groggy, I of course suggested that maybe in our last mission, he shouldn’t have taken that poison mist at his face?

* * *

(Flashback end.)

Sasori, was so furious that he could not believe that it was possible to get any angrier from that point.

Meanwhile, Naruto was looking Orochimaru with horror. ‘He just practically operated on his partner, and no one realized it until he confessed about it himself…’

‘Good thing that he couldn’t use that against you.’ Yamato said in Naruto’s mind, the demon of course agreed with his sword.

Naruto saw how the blond, and the youngest person among the group of Hokages, was staring at him without blinking.

“Hay. That explained him, but how did you got,” Deidara has a disgusted expression on his face from what he is about to say, “My DNA? I was strong armed into shitty organization after you left, yeah!” Deidara grunted, while looking at Itachi and Kisame with evil intentions in his eyes.

“Ah, good times.” The shark man said.

“Indeed.” The sociopathic human agreed.

“Well…”

* * *

(Flashback.)

At that time, I didn’t have such worries as Uzomaki, and concerns that Uzomaki would become a problem, or indeed Uzomaki was a problem.

I think you get what I am saying at this point.

So, there I was, getting ready for when the time was right, to take Sasuke’s body, while enduring his childish tantrums. Honestly, several times I thought it would be better to extract his sperms, and make one of the girls in the sound pregnant with his child, while waiting for that child to grow up, and then take over that body.

Hm, now how to accomplish this? The biggest problem would be of course, convincing the subject.

I was contemplating all this, that suddenly I had an arm land on my desk, which was inside my lair where I would retreat to when I had enough of the stupidity outside.

Naturally no one has the guts to interrupt me when I am in such a mood, much less enter my lair. Even Kabuto doesn’t do that. then, the question is, where does that arm comes from?

* * *

(Flashback end.)

“And I figure that since that arm landed on my desk in such a fashion, the Shinobi would have been strong, and dead as well. When I used the DNA from that arm to summon people, you appeared.” The Sannin finished his tale.

Everyone was shuttering at the thoughts of Orochimaru.

“Man, he is one disturbing bastard, yeah!”

“Really?” Naruto said, “’When the time would be right,’ What the hell were you planning to do to him?” Naruto asked for the sake of his enemy.

Hiruzen hung his head in shame. “Where did I go wrong?”

“Ah, there. There. Everyone has those moments.” The first Hokage consoled the depressed third.

“Like you and Madara—” the second Hokage tried to say, but his brother cut him off in the middle.

“Every. One. Has. Those moments!”

“Okay, explain how did you got Kisame’s DNA? B killed him at the Land of Rains.” Naruto asked.

“I am very displeased about that, and am going to lodge a formal protest.”

The demon looked at Itachi, the Uchiha explained. “He has been learning politics.” Was the simple answer.

“Very easy. Considering his blood knight tendencies—”

“How the hell do you even know that term—” Naruto questioned baffled.

“It was very easy to goad him into a fight, and then collect the blood which he left behind.” Orochimaru gave a look to the shark man, which screamed ‘I am better than you.’

“Bullshit! I never bled anywhere near you.” Kisame protested.

“Ah yes, what a headache that was.”

“Ahem. Since everyone insist on asking the traumatic details, why leave me? How did you got me?” the second oldest person there asked.

“Yeah. He is nothing more than the stitched-up collections of threads.” The demon said, “How did you got him?” Naruto smirked.

“Go die somewhere, Uzomaki.” Kakuzu grunted.

“Oh? Uzomaki am I now? Last I known you, you insisted me calling the Nine tails.”

* * *

(Flashback.)

Ignoring the pathetic attempts to intimidate each other, I began my illustrious tale of how exactly I got the DNA sample from the stitched up collection of threads, alternatively known as Kakuzu, also the bastard who won’t share his heart steeling technique, which would have been invaluable for my quest of the search of immortality.

You see, before that madman Hidan, also another nutjob who has the immortality, (At this point, I started to hate this organization, they had something which I wanted, and each and every one of them refuse to share their secrets with me,) became the partner of the unhinged Kakuzu, who just killed his assigned partners at the drop of a hat, I was assigned as his partner for once when Sasori was out for some reasons, which I have nothing to do with, honest!

Anyway, we completed our mission, no problem there, as far as we cared anyway. But you see, Kakuzu, the paranoid bastard as he was, managed to get ill, not just ill mind you, get food poisoning, imagine that!

I of course, was close by, and since I knew enough healing, I knocked him out, found out that there was actual body beneath those threads, extracted a very generous sample of DNA freely given I assumed, after all it wasn’t like he was protesting or anything.

* * *

(Flashback end.)

“You, you bastard!” Kakuzu, after just ten minutes of being alive later was already so enraged that he was frothing from the mouth.

“My parents were married, thank you, Sensei can confirm this.”

“Very unfortunately. Besides, your mother and father told me—” Sarutobi tried to explain what his parents thought of Orochimaru in the afterlife, but the Sannin was not in the mood to listen.

“They are dead, dead people don’t talk.” Orochimaru said quickly.

This of course earned him the deadpan looks from all the dead, reincarnated Shinobi in the clearing.

“Wait,” the demon said, ”That still doesn’t explain how exactly did you got the Hokages.”

“Whatever do you mean? They were easy to acquire, given that their bodies were well preserved in the Leaf.” Orochimaru asked, not understanding the question.

“Sigh, and this was the reason why I wanted to implement the cremation policy, but the damn fools at the council refused me. ‘It would be an insult to our heroes,’ they said. ‘just think about the grieving families,’ they said. Well look where it got us!” Tobirama ranted.

“Wow, looks like that guy did not survive the desk without some scars.” Yamato commented, while observing the continuing rant of the second Hokage.

“Working at an office can be scarring, Yamato.”

“Anyway, what I was saying was that the fourth Hokage,” the blond man for a moment lost his stair and flinched, before resuming to stare at the demon once more, “The great, great grandpa Hokage, and the great grandpa Hokage were sealed by the grandpa Hokage, correct?”

“Right. Though, how did you know this, Naruto?” if Sarutobi remembered correctly, the boy was not anywhere near his battle to know those details.

“Simple. The details of your battles were not kept secret at all. And of course, from what I have managed to gather the information about the technique, your soul would have been also be sealed, right?” the demon saw how the mention of sealing caused more flinching by the fourth Hokage.

“Correct.”

“Then how exactly did you manage to summon the Hokages? They were bonded to death in a contract.”

“Ah that. Hmhmhmhmhmhm. It is an interesting tale, Naruto.”

“What?” the demon said, not liking the tone of the snake Sannin.

“Your clan helped me.”

“What, I had a clan? Wait. Why would they help you of all people?” Naruto asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

* * *

(Flashback.)

Ignoring the pathetic attempts of getting an answer out of me from the demon child in front of me, I began my tale once more.

Uzomaki clan and the Leaf had a tight relation since the inception of the Leaf. It mainly has to do with the fact that the kunoichi known as Mito Uzomaki was married to Hashirama, the first Hokage. The woman had a very long life, she was alive until my Genin days, while her husband was dead long before that time.

Later, when I left my beloved village which has just gone downhill ever since the end of the third war, I learned about the Uzomaki clan. And what a wonderful clan they were, they would have been perfect for my experiments, since they have very strong life force. Too bad their clan was wiped out, and the surviving members scattered all over the world. What was strange, however was the fact that none of them came to Leaf, which I am sure would have been happy to take care of them, aside from few people of course. (You all know who I am talking about.)

Whatever the case, the Uzomaki clan never came to the Leaf for the help. But they left a very important thing behind.

A temple, more specifically a temple which has several masks inside it, right at the outskirts of the Leaf. I never understood why Sensei, or Danzo didn’t dismantled the thing for its secrets, but it did become very useful to me.

You see, out of the several masks stored within that temple, one mask held the most importance for me. For wearing that mask would invoke the death god from the dead demon consuming seal, the same technique the Sensei tried to use on me.

Wearing that mask gave me something of a power trip. I could not believe that there was such a new way to look the world, or the chance of immortality was just here in my grasp.

Alas, the entity tried to take control of me, the attempts were weak, but I can feel it all the same at the back of my mind. So, with its own scythe, (Wasn’t that amusing?) I slashed open my stomach, from which four bright lights flew off.

Of course, it did not matter whether those lights flew at the sky and disappeared. Once I use my summoning technique with their DNA, their souls would be under my control once more.

* * *

(Flashback end.)

After the tale was done, the demon stayed silent for three seconds. Then, he spoke to his sword…

“New plan Yamato. Hunt the bastard Uzomakis down, for leaving their important stuff lying around, and inconveniencing the demon member of their own clan.”

The first Hokage had a horrifying look on his face. “You will do no such thing to my wonderful Mito’s descendance, I forbid it!”

“You’re dead, you can’t stop meeeeeee!” the demon sang.

“Naruto,” came the voice of Itachi, silencing Naruto. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” the Uchiha was appeared to be quite annoyed.

“Forgetting what?”

“You’ve asked about everyone, but for me. Do you hate me that much?” Itachi tried to pout, but the only thing which he managed to do was to traumatize the demon again.

“Yeah Naruto, do you hate him so much? Hahahaha!” his sword did not help either.

“Shut up Yamato. As for hate, I think your brother would be a better candidate to answer that question.”

“That is a low blow.” Itachi complained.

“And I shall fulfill your desire, Itachi.” Orochimaru said, sounding as if he was turned on once more.

“Seriously, you Uchiha are the turn on for him.”

* * *

(Flashback.)

Now, at this point I was thinking to leave Akatsuki. Not that I didn’t like the organization or something, but the members with whom I have such a wonderful time collecting samples were getting suspicious. And as great as I am, I really don’t want to face all of them at once.

But the problem was, there was no such thing as parting on good terms with Akatsuki, nor there was any retirement plan. When I will create my own village, I’ll be sure to not repeat their mistakes.

Getting back to the point, I needed to get out of here. But there was one last thing which I must do before I leave this organization: acquire the Sharingan.

How would I do that? you may ask. Why, simply possess the nearest source, Itachi Uchiha.

Now, I get that he killed his clan and all, but really. He’s not that old, around fourteen or so. While I am Orochimaru of the Sannin, the veteran of two Shinobi world wars. There is no way anything could go wrong.

* * *

(One hour later…)

How could everything go so wrong?

Not only the teenager proved to be too strong, but he was still actively resisting me. How I am supposed to become immortal when such people are constantly getting in my way?

“Get out of my body!” the teenage Itachi snarled.

“Noooooo!” I gave a forlorn scream.

* * *

(Flashback end.)

“And then he threw my possession attempt aside as if it was nothing, cut off my hand, which luckily had the Akatsuki ring on it, and that was the final day in the Akatsuki for me.” Orochimaru finished his tale, as if he was teaching about himself in a class.

Hearing about the hand caused the eyes of the demon to shine, and he asked, “Any chance you would give me the ring?”

“No.” the Sannin refused.

“Please?” the demon asked nicely, just like those people from orphanage taught him so.

“No.” the answer was still flat refusal.

“Pretty please?” Naruto tried again.

“No.” now Orochimaru was getting impatient.

“Pretty please, with cherry on top?”

“No! what meaning of this word don’t you understand? No means no.” Orochimaru exploded.

“Fine. you will be singing the different tune when I am done with you.”

“Naruto…”

Instantly, everyone started to pay attention towards the blond man, who has still not taken his eyes off from the demon, not even for once.

Ever since he stepped out of the coffin, and saw who was standing opposite him, he has been staring at the demon, while the other three Hokages argued about various things around him.

“Why won’t you talk to me, Naruto?” the man questioned, as if he did not understand the world.

“Sensei, I am having a really bad feeling about this.” The third muttered to the second Hokage.

“Sarutobi, they don’t know.” Hashirama reminded.

“What—oh. Shit.” Realization dawns on the third.

“Tell your student to release him now.” The second Hokage ordered.

“Orochimaru—” the chuckle of the fourth cut off the order of the third.

“Hmhmhmhmhm. You can’t send me back so easily, not until I have my answers.” The fourth Hokage said darkly.

‘This looks like descension in their ranks, why aren’t you taking advantage of this?’ the demon blade asked, since his wielder would have been all over that weakness by this point.

‘As if. They were never united against me. Look how they are standing? Orochimaru at the center, Akatsuki guys at one side, and Hokages at another. Besides, the Hokages did made their intentions clear, they do not wish to fight me.’

‘Then why?’

‘Because this is disturbing me, Yamato.’

“Ah crap.” The sword said out loud.

“Exactly.” The demon agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so no one recommended any stories to me. But still, I managed to find two of them.
> 
> first, Re: hatred. Sasuke travels back in time unknowingly, tries to make sure the massacre doesn't happens. The story currently have three chapters on AO3.
> 
> Second, Letters to the Monsters. a professor dies because of cancer, and reborns in the Naruto world, in its most chaotic period, the warring clan era. The professor has never touched a volume of manga in his life. The story currently has 12 chapters on AO3.
> 
> I do suggest to check these stories out.
> 
> Also, I enjoyed far too much when I wrote those flashbacks of Orochimaru.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We cut to the stage, where a hansom looking guy is explaining some stuff.
> 
> Author: You see, Naruto knows that Minato is his father. But he also knows that the Minato won't know that, so he is just egging him on.
> 
> The clapping started up, and the guy on the stage flushed from the praise--
> 
> (Cut to the real world.)
> 
> *Cricket chirps*
> 
> sigh, no one likes my story.

Chapter 22.

Dancing with dead.

(With Naruto versus Orochimaru, and his zombie army.)

The fact that his wielder was disturbed implied several things to Yamato.

One of them is naturally, Naruto knows this person. Second, he did not expect such behavior from this person. Third, the panicking Hokages just added to the problem.

So, considering all of those points, the sword understood why Naruto was disturbed. It was also good thing that he admitted this fact mentally, no need to give the enemy more ammunition against you.

“Sensei,” the snake Sannin was saying, “Why is Minato behaving this way? I have never seen him like this, it is as if he snapped. But this shouldn’t be happening, he was so stable during the time of the third war of all things. So, what happen to him?” Orochimaru is perplexed at the sudden suggestion of Sarutobi, he did not understand why exactly the Hokages were panicking.

The Hokages exchanged a look between them, and Sarutobi decided to speak.

“Tell me Orochimaru, what do you know about the Dead Demon Consuming Seal? Beyond the fact that you can summon the death reaper with it?”

Orochimaru scoffed at this question. “You think I won’t understand the technique which was used on me? Especially since I have mastered the summoning of the souls from the past, even better than the creator of the technique.” Tobirama gives him a disgruntled look, “After offering your soul as a sacrifice, you summon the death reaper, who in turn, take the soul of your enemy. There are rumors that those souls spend eternity in the stomach of the death reaper in combat, but I consider them to be exactly that, rumors.” Orochimaru explained, always happy to flaunt his knowledge.

“Figures. You only know the high-level details. You don’t even know where exactly these souls come from, or who exactly takes them away.” Tobirama, still sore over Orochimaru’s remarks earlier, said this mercilessly.

“You did used the Uzomakis death mask to release us, correct?” Sarutobi however, was much gentler. “You see, you indeed are correct in assuming that we don’t spend the eternity locked in combat inside of the stomach of the death reaper. Instead, all those souls, whether they are sealed, or made a packed with the death reaper end up in the service of death.”

“Indeed.” Tobirama picked up the explanation, “And we all have to perform missions for the death reaper.”

“Soul scarring, haunting missions, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.” Hashirama for a change, sports a gloomy expression on his face.

“The sad thing is, these past few years have been a rather relaxing.”

Orochimaru was smart enough to pick on the sentiments of the second Hokage, ‘You don’t want to know what happens during the serious times.’

Seeing the curious expression on Orochimaru’s face, the third replied to his unasked question. “We’re not allowed to share the contents of those missions from outsiders, dead or living, or otherwise.”

“By that he means that we can’t share the events of those missions, not the fact that we were pretty much slaves to the death god.” Hashirama tries to say this in neutral tone, but he couldn’t contain the resentment for the Sannin for causing Hiruzen to use that technique, and send them all there.

“During one such mission though, Minato for some reason snapped, went mad, and started to howl about how he would kill every single one of them again and again. It took all of us combine to restrain him, and even then, we were barely able to do that.” the third concluded the explanation, while looking at the fourth Hokage. “Ever since, he has not been the same way.”

“Hmhmhmhmhm. Done explaining?” Minato said, making everyone shiver in fear at the clearing. “To tell you the truth, I snapped because I saw the memories.”

“What memories?” all the Hokages asked, having been wondering about it for a while now.

“The memories of my son’s life.” This brought a silence of three seconds, during which Sarutobi considered trying to commit suicide, (Something over which he won’t feel any guilt since he is already dead.)

But then, he quickly rallied himself up, and decided that he will face his sins, just like he led his village through two wars, without bending his spine.

“And how?” he looked Minato in the eye, and asked.

“When I sealed the nine tails in Naruto, I also left the piece of my own consciousness and Chakra behind, in a case if I needed to tighten the seal. Of course, Kushina, also did the same thing.” This explanation caused so many questions in the mind of Orochimaru. Not for the first time, he considers what could have been if a genius like Minato would have worked with him. “When Naruto absorbed the nine tails, my piece of consciousness returned to me, and I saw how his life turned out.” However, answering questions is the furthest thing in Minato’s mind right now.

“Ah. This was the reason why he snapped.” Hashirama couldn’t stop himself from saying that.

“Indeed.” Tobirama agreed with his brother.

“Oh, the wonderful tale doesn’t end there.” That tone and the manner of speech gives Orochimaru nasty flashbacks to Naruto’s trial. “When I tracked Kushina down, and shared the thought what a great mistake we have made, she did not understand it, instead she called me a fool!”

“Me? A fool? Especially when I sacrificed my own son to save the village? ‘His fate was meant to be a weapon,’ she said. ‘Besides, we’re not alive, what does it matter whatever happens to him?’ she dismissed it all so easily!” Minato thundered.

Remembering her words, her candid expression, especially when he considers her own history, brings tears to Minato’s eyes just by thinking about it.

“At that day, her being a woman with whom I fell in love with, was the only reason why I did left her broken and bleeding. I could have done something much more worse.” His tone brought a shiver to everyone present in the clearing, even the Akatsuki members who were watching this drama of Leaf, as they dubbed this in their heads.

“Wait, who is the ‘son’ you are talking about?” Naruto asked, wanting the public confirmation of a secret fact he learned so long ago.

“You, you don’t know?” Minato asked in surprise, finally showing some other emotion besides guilt and anger.

“Know what?” Naruto egged him on, while Orochimaru is thinking how badly it could end up for everyone here, if Minato gets even more enraged than he already is now.

He suspected that it would be particularly bad for his own health. So, he tried to stop this train wreck from starting, by telling the truth himself about how Naruto is lying, and he learned it so long ago, and he even told them about that during his public trial. but the thrice damned blond is not giving him any chance to speak!

“And you never told him?” Minato asked the third Hokage.

“Well, it was for his own protection—” Hiruzen after chanting in his head that he must not use this excuse, still blurt it out much to his shame.

“And what a wonderful protection that was.” The demon added sarcastically.

“You mean to say,” Minato said, so furious that he reached full circle, “that my own son doesn’t know that I am his father?”

Glaring at Sarutobi, Minato asked, “And what did you do? Why did you allowed this to happen? Why didn’t you tell him about his family?”

“And what would you have me do? I was forced to take a position for which I was too old and weary. On the top of that, those snakes at council were trying to sees more power. As if this was not enough, the cloud demanded the head of a clan, for their own failure. And then, I have to rebuild the village, Orochimaru ran away, and Danzo tried to grab power, in which he was more successful than those snakes at council. On top of all that, a clan decided to rebel, and the morons decided at the plan of action without informing me at all. What was I supposed to do!” Hiruzen raged, having holding on to these issues for so long. He didn’t share these problems with the previous two Hokages in the afterlife, nor he protested to Minato for leaving him with the position of Hokage.

Looking at the raging old man, Minato’s look softened a little. No one person should deal with so many issues at once. Of course, Naruto has the similar thoughts.

“This, is of course I don’t care what happens to the Leaf. I did my part, and it should be the responsibility of the living Shinobi to manage, and defend it, not ours.” It was a good thing that Danzo is not here. He just might croak after listening those words from his rival.

“As much as it pains me to admit, and despite how callous Saru sounds, I agree with him.” Tobirama said, having experience with what happens when you try to rule as Hokage during a chaotic period.

“You all failed me.” Minato said. “When I said that he should be considered a hero, I did not mean it to be known to the public. No matter. I may not be able to kill you in the afterlife, but I can do it, here!” Minato decided. ‘Besides, previous Hokages are all dead. They shouldn’t blame me if I let loose, and give them a friendly beating, from one Hokage to another.’ 

The sky, which was so clear just few moments ago despite the winter of the Land of Iron, was now filled with the roiling black clouds.

“Is he?” Hashirama asked with some wonderment.

“He is planning to use that technique now.” His brother confirmed.

“Orochimaru, release the summoning!” Sarutobi ordered once more.

“Dammit, I am trying! But he just won’t yield!” he said furiously.

“Hehehehehehe, hahahahahaha! This is your grand plan? Looks like it is time to show them, Yamato! We’ll show them that these half measures won’t work on us!” Naruto chuckled, and then roared with laughter.

“That is right!” the fourth Hokage exclaimed, “My son, show me your power!”

‘Looks like the entire family is mad.’ Yamato sighed.

‘Hay, I haven’t met mother yet. Who knows, she might be the normal one among us.’ Naruto tried to defend his family.

“Sensei, you must stop him, I can’t control Minato and fight with Uzomaki at once.” Orochimaru strained his mind, trying to control Minato.

Very unwillingly, Sarutobi moved forward to follow the orders of his students, while Tobirama, was having an expression as if he was forced to swallow something sour. Out of the all Hokages, Hashirama perhaps was the only one who did not mind following the orders of Orochimaru, since this opponent was appeared to be very strong, not to mention his threats against his precious Meto’s clan did worried him.

Grunting, and grumbling, all the Akatsuki members moved against Naruto, though they showed how much they wish to follow the orders, by the threats against Orochimaru, and plain old tantrums.

Despite their unwillingness, the Akatsuki members were the first ones who reached the demon, while Naruto waited in an enemy goons approach me, while I just glare at them pose.

“My art—”

“Art this!” Dedara’s declaration was cut short dew to receiving a Hyper Beam right on the face.

Meanwhile, the threads of Kakuzu as well as his four out of the five hearts surrounded the demon, and began to bombard him with the elemental techniques.

“This again.”

Teleporting outside, Naruto cut down the water heart which was turning around to fire a water technique in his direction.

Of course, the demon saw how the heart is regenerating. “What the hell? How come it’s regenerating like that? it’s outside of the body!”

But the demon did not have long to contemplate this, since Itachi and Kisame were preparing to attack him, while the recently regenerated Deidara was preparing to incinerate him.

“Damn you Orochimaru, how dare you turn my art into something so repetitive!”

Getting out of the way of the black flames of Amaterasu, Naruto grumbled about how he thought that he will never have to deal with this again, yet here he was, avoiding the unnatural flames.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru was having the problem of his own. ‘I thought incorporating the modifications of Kabuto would be helpful, but it is really backfiring on us!’

The snake Sannin was also miffed because Minato not only caused him problems when he was alive, but he was causing him problems even in his death.

Of course, in the opinion of this incredibly wise Narrator, he shouldn’t have summoned him in the first place… ahem.

Naruto avoided the flames of Amaterasu, dodged the water shark of Kisame, got out of the way of a poisonous mist, and used Sasori as a shield against the Deidara’s suicidal explosion.

“Damn you, Orochimaru. Why do you keep robbing my glorious end from me!”

* * *

(In Land of Iron, some hundred kilometers away from the battle.)

While Deidara’s explosions weren’t strong enough to reach the Land of Iron, they were still strong enough to cause some really loud sound, as well as shaking some buildings situated outside of the capital.

“I wonder what’s happening?” one of the trainee Samurais wondered out loud.

“Nothing. the country is in lockdown, as far as we’re concerned, the world outside of the Iron doesn’t exist until the lockdown is lifted.”

* * *

(Back to the battle.)

After such a flurry of activities, everyone stopped to assess whether they did accomplish something or not.

During his own assessment, the demon watched the body of Sasori, who strangely was not in his wooden body, disappear in to dust, instead there was another body of a Shinobi laying there, in such a destroyed state that it is impossible to recognize the person.

“Hmhmhmhm. Hahahahaha! So, I only need to do so much damage that they can’t regenerate. Wait, where are the Hokages?”

Right when he asked that question, Naruto avoided a hard clobber with the staph of Sarutobi, the wooden statues, and a water dragon, curtesy of the second Hokage.

“You old men have such a shitty timing!”

“Ah, but we can’t help it, after all, you were in such a wonderfully distracted state.” Sarutobi said, having used such remarks during the training of his own Genin team.

“Dammit!”

The Akatsuki members now short a number, were now grouping with the Hokages, to corner the demon.

Right when they thought that the demon would not be able to get out, Naruto Firepunched one of the hearts of Kakuzu, and managed to get out of the circle of entrapment, at least what he dubbed the gang up on Naruto strategy in his head.

“Naruto, we’re too outnumbered, we need someone in our side.” Yamato suggested.

“I know that dammit. But they are most likely stalled by the others.” Naruto replied, thinking about the Raikage and Mizukage, and their bodyguards.

“Hahahahahaha!” the laugh of Deidara echoes in the clearing.

Turning around to see why exactly the mad bomber was laughing, Naruto muttered, “Crap.”

“He’s getting larger…” Yamato stated the obvious.

“I fucking know.”

“and we have nowhere near enough distance to avoid getting caught up in his explosion.” Once more, the sword said the obvious.

“I fucking know it, dammit!”

“What are we going to do, then?” Yamato asked.

“attack him head on, of course.” Naruto said, confident in his tactic.

“But he could prematurely explode on us.” Yamato pointed out the flaw in the tactic.

“True. but it still would be better than getting caught up in a full powered explosion.”

Taking advantage of the distracted state of the demon, Kakuzu tried to snare Naruto into his threads, something which earned him a scoff from the demon.

“Didn’t you tried this already?” really, some people never learn.

Grabbing the threads, Naruto yanked with such a force that the bounty hunter was dragged into the close distance of Naruto.

“You know, you would do just fine.” Naruto stated, after contemplating what to do with the bounty hunter.

“What?”

Kakuzu didn’t have much of a chance to speak since Naruto using him as a battering ram, attacked Deidara.

Naturally, he exploded, and Naruto was thrown far dew to the force. But just like before, Kakuzu was not regenerating. Also, the Shinobi which was used as a sacrifice, was now laying on the dust headless, since the head was destroyed within the explosion.

‘Hm. Come to think of it, same thing happened with Sasori.’ Naruto considers this information.

‘You need to get one of them, and examine their heads.’ Yamato suggested.

Looking around, Naruto saw that Itachi was working with the third, while Kisame and Tobirama were preparing to attack him. None of them he can acquire easily. But then he saw Deidara, who was now regenerating from his suicide attack.

“Perfect target!” he said, and leaped at this chance.

“Fuck you Orochimaru! Fuck you with a—”

The restarted cursing of the mad bomber did not last long, since Naruto grabbed him, and hightailed out of there, so he would not be in the direct firing range of the assembling forces of Hokages and Akatsuki members.

“Wait, where did he go?” Hashirama asked, “He disappeared so quickly.”

While Hokages were busy in finding their disappeared enemy, Orochimaru was struggling with Minato, the struggle which brought him to his knees.

“You won’t be able to hold me back for too long!” Minato said, still cold as ice, yet burning with the rage within.

“Shut up!” Orochimaru gritted out. He didn’t see why he should be subjected to his barbs.

Taking Deidara into a secluded spot, causing Yamato to joke endlessly about how Naruto has less than pure intensions, the demon bound the bomber with Rikujokoro.

Quickly switching the place, just in case if those Hokages sensed him using the demon spell, Naruto brought Deidara to under a thick tree, and the demon began to study the bomber, in a hope that he would find a way to release the seal.

Of course, the demon was planning the most vicious retaliation for the jokes of Yamato.

Meanwhile, Deidara was thinking that what a sad day it was when he decided to leave his village. If he was more patient, he would have been the Kage of his village, and soon he would have the chance to turn his village in to the appreciators of art.

But ever since he left his village, he has nothing but misery. He was recruited into the Akatsuki against his will, lost his arm before his death, tried to kill the brother of his recruiter, but ended up dying without any results.

But even in death, the peace was not in his luck for long. For the snake Sannin decided that he would be a great soldier for battling the demon. And now?

Now he was getting examined like a test subject. At this point, the blond bomber just wanted everything to end. Not even arguing with Sasori could bring him out of this depression.

Of course, Naruto was not privy to what was going on in the head of his test subject. Instead, he was concentrating on how exactly can he get rid of his enemy, who are already dead.

‘But they clearly did not regenerate from his explosions.’ Yamato and Naruto were discussing their findings.

‘True, but why? I mean as far as I know, it shouldn’t matter how much damage they suffer, they should regenerate. Unless…’ the demon thought of something.

‘What?’

‘Unless the seal was destroyed, shattering the anchor to this world.’ Naruto thinks about it.

Humming, Naruto plunged his hand within the head of Deidara. He wanted to scream in pain, but no noise would come out of his throat.

When Naruto used Rikujokoro on Sasuke, he locked his muscles so tight, that he was unable to talk, or breathe properly. But that was due to mistake, since the demon was getting used to his powers at that time. This time, it was not a mistake.

Digging through Deidara’s head like a surgent out of a medical nightmare, Naruto was looking for the seal which was the anchor for the dead Shinobi to this world, while also allowing Orochimaru to control them simultaneously.

But much to his frustration, the demon was not getting anything.

“Dammit!” he cursed softly, since it would not do if Hokages and remaining members of Akatsuki heard him before his research is complete. “Is the seal somewhere else in your body?”

Deidara, of course did not gave an answer, since he was unable to vocalize his thoughts.

Not that he would have said anything, at this point, Deidara hated everyone. Orochimaru for summoning him and putting him in this situation, Kisame and Itachi for recruiting him, and the demon who is causing him so much pain.

Moving his hands some more, the demon finally touched something solid. When he dug some more, and got his fingers around the solid object, he realizes that it was the shape of a small Kunai.

“Finally!” Naruto said loudly, unable to contain his excitement.

‘Not so loud!’ Yamato cautioned.

‘Sorry, sorry.’ The demon apologized.

‘the undead squad most likely heard you. Do whatever you want to do quickly.’ Yamato brought his wielder’s focus back on the task.

‘Hm. Since I found the seal, I can destroy it. let’s see whether it takes care of them or not.’

‘Wait, don’t do that.’ the sword stopped him.

‘Why?’

‘Extract the knife. I am sure it will be enough to release the poor bastard.’ Yamato said, feeling some pity for Deidara.

“You’re right. Then I can simply destroy the heads of the rest, and boom! They would be out of my hair.” The demon said out loud.

“Then it would be the turn of that snake bastard. Hmhmhmhm.” Naruto imagined the screams of pain.

With a squelching sound, Naruto removed the knife from the scull of Deidara, causing him to turn into the dost slowly, leaving the Shinobi sacrificed for summoning him lying in front of the demon.

* * *

(With the undead squad…)

“Did you get anything, Tobi?” asked the first Hokage.

“No. he’s perhaps out of my range, or not moving much. And I am not Tobi!” Tobirama declared. Looks like his brother has forgotten the consequences of calling him with that name.

“Sensei, perhaps it would be possible to track him through sage mode?” Hiruzen suggested.

“True. but it’ll take time.”

Just then, out of nowhere, they all heard “Finally!” very clearly.

“Looks like we got him.” Kisame said with a gruesome smile.

“Indeed.” Itachi nodded.

With the location of Naruto revealed, the last remaining members of Akatsuki, and the three Hokages started to converge on his location.

Arriving to the area, all of them saw the dost covered corpse of the Sacrifice, and the blood covered hands of the demon.

Naruto knew that they were coming for him, so he did not saw any reason to move from his location.

“So, you killed Deidara?” Hashirama asked, revved up for a nice speech in the honor of the ally who fought on their side.

“Killed? What do you mean killed? He was already dead!” Naruto refused to take the responsibility.

“He’s right brother.” Tobirama agreed with the demon.

“You shut your mouth. He’s not threatening the clan of your wife!” Hashirama couldn’t not fathom someone threatening all those wonderful Uzomakis, who are always up for an experiment or to, rather then tell him off like his brother.

“There is no clan, dammit! If there was a clan, don’t you think I would have a significantly happier childhood?” Naruto is fed up with all this talk about the clan… which didn’t exist for him. So, might as well be not there anymore.

“There is no such thing as happy childhood for a Shinobi…” Tobirama said, trying to appear wise. (What do you mean wise? I am wise!)

“Shut up, emo grandpa.”

Silence descended on the forest, as Tobirama fumed with anger, while his brother said, “He’s not wrong, you know.”

“Yeah, keep you’re out dated emo— holy hell!” Naruto has to dodge out of the water dragon out of nowhere, which Yamato dubbed WDOK.

* * *

(With demonic allies versus human allies.)

Gaara really tried, but as much as he has the experience in killing people, he simply did not compare to the experience of Mei and her guards, who fought within a civil war.

Thus, it resulted in Temari knocked unconscious, Kankuro taken as a hostage, and most of his sand melted within the acid and lava of the Mizukage.

Meanwhile, Tsunade might be stronger than Raikage, but she was no match for his speed. You can’t hit someone whom you can’t touch, after all.

Shattered soldier Kakashi, on the other hand, was giving as good as he got to Darui, reminding everyone present there why he is considered a legend.

In comparison though, Sasuke was not having a great time as his Sensei.

Not only he proved to be no match for B in raw power, B didn’t even utilize his tail beast. of course that was true until he used the Mangekyo.

Which was a double insult, since Mangekyo was supposed to have the power to control the tail beast. But B was not getting within his control.

He tried every trick within his sleeve, like Amaterasu, in which he is better than his brother, if he say so himself. or Susanoo, but nothing worked.

It all resulted Sasuke on the ground coughing blood. Though he himself could not decide whether it was because of the beating, or the bad rimes.

“Your eyes can stand,  
My cool great rimes, yo!”

“But in all seriousness, your arrogance is the biggest factor in you getting beat up like that.”

Grabbing the Uchiha from his neck, B continued. “You will never beat him like this, scratch that. you are not a challenge for him like you are now. Tell me one reason why I should leave you alive, yo?”

With a lot of effort, Sasuke croaked. “I’ll burn the world if I had to, to kill him.”

Letting go of the teen, B chuckled. “That, is a good answer.”

The last thing Sasuke saw was the incoming foot of the B, before he was knocked out with a punt.

‘Let’s bale the brother out, then go to help that overconfident bastard.’ B said to Jyuki.

‘Hmhmhm. Is it the criticism I am hearing?’ Jyuki chuckled.

‘yes.’

* * *

(Back to the demon versus the undead squad.)

While Sasuke was receiving the beating which the demon would have definitely paid for watching, Naruto was having his own problems.

Hokage trio, were working too well for his liking, and Itachi and Kisame were causing problems for him as well. As if it was not enough, that damn Uchiha decided to use Susanoo of all things, which still gives him uneasy feeling despite facing and killing Itachi many months ago.

The only point of Solis was for Naruto was that Orochimaru and his father, (What a weird feeling when he thinks about it,) were locked in a mental battle. He did not need the snake causing more troubles for him, as well as his father. Especially considering his reputation for raising hell.

Right now, the demon is performing a tactical retreat.

And anyone who said that he was running from the Shinobi who just won’t get tired was clearly spreading rumors, and he will deal with them in the most vicious fashion.

Anyway, getting back to the point, since Naruto was not willing to engage with them directly, the Hokages and the remaining Akatsuki members were planning their next move. Because as much as Hokages would prefer that the living would deal with their problems on their own, they still have a soft spot.

Same thing applied to Itachi, while Kisame was just there for the fight, until he gets back in the afterlife, back to his political career.

“I can trap him with my wood release,” the first Hokage was saying, “That should give us a chance to finish him.”

“Lord first, your wood release didn’t work on him so far…” Itachi trailed off.

“Hmhmhm. Don’t worry kid, I do have a variation which I developed in the dead realm working for death god, especially for dealing with demons.”

“But Sensei, that technique takes too long to use!” protested Hiruzen.

“Don’t worry. While Lord first sets up his technique, I do think we four are more than enough to by us enough time.” Itachi assured.

“Great then! Brother, mind sensing him?”

Meanwhile, Naruto and Yamato were making plans of their own.

‘I’m telling you Naruto; you should summon someone from the demon world. Dealing with these people is too much for us.’ Yamato gave a smart suggestion in his opinion.

‘I can’t. do you have any idea what will it do to my reputation?’ unfortunately, his wielder is not smart enough to agree to that suggestion.

‘Look, I am familiar with the power struggles between demons. But you tell me, which one is better. Taking a hit to your reputation? Or dying.’

‘look. Give me some more time. I at least think I can take one more out on my own, after which I’ll open the gate.’

‘really? Which one do you have in mind?’ the sword asked curiously.

‘Kisame. Hokages are working like a well-oiled machine, I can’t get close to any of them. meanwhile, Itachi is protected by his Susanoo. But Kisame is not only without his sword, but he doesn’t have any armor or any other defense either.’

‘very well, I’ll be ready to open the gate then.’

Right at that moment, Naruto saw Itachi and Kisame, along with the second and third Hokages coming at him.

‘Wait, where is the first?’

The demon did not have to ponder this long, as he was soon getting attacked by all Shinobi as if he has done something personally bad to each of them.

Which… to be honest, he had.

Assaulting him with magatamas, Itachi asked, “Tell me Uzomaki, are you enjoying the reception?”

“Dammit go get fucked by a spider, Itachi!” which Itachi roughly translated as no.

“Why spiders?” Itachi asked, not understanding the choice.

Dodging more Magatamas coming his way, along with Amaterasu Naruto replied, “Because spiders kill their mates after sex—”

“Water style: Waterfall!” two voices came from behind.

The resulting wave of water swept the demon from his feet, and nearly carried him to Itachi who was preparing more Amaterasu flames for him.

‘Seriously, this just never ends with him.’

‘To be fare though, he doesn’t have to worry about the stamina problems anymore.’

“Not helping, Yamato!”

Coming out of the earth, the third Hokage nearly got a perfect hit on Naruto with his staff, which suddenly had a mouth and started to talk.

“So, the rumors were true. there is a new wielder of the dark blade.” The staff said.

“Yeah, yeah, so what?”

‘Naruto pay attention to the people who want to drown you!’ Yamato berated.

“What?” seeing that Kisame and Tobirama were preparing another water attack for him, the demon said, “Oh fine. You want water? You’ll get water! Water Pulse!”

Developing a large ball in his hand which looked to be made of energy, Naruto throws the ball which was at the size of a football to the water users.

The ball exploded right above their heads, and massive amount of water descended upon their heads. In the resulting chaos, both of them got separated.

Naruto also managed to get away from Sarutobi, by shocking the living staff by using his still fledgling lightning abilities, and firing a Hyper Beam right on the face of the third, causing him to regenerate slowly.

Itachi was sadly, getting slowed down by his Susanoo. But he could not let go of the armor, lest the demon somehow destroy his anchor to this world.

While the second Hokage managed to find Itachi and still regenerating Sarutobi, Kisame was not so lucky. He ended up far from his other mates of the death squad.

This is the reason why Naruto was not only tracking the dead member of the seven swordsmen, but preparing the most destructive attack he knew at this point.

When the shark man tried to go back to Itachi and Hokages, Naruto fired the Gallick gun at his head, vaporizing the entire upper body of the swordsmen, and destroying the seal in the process.

‘If I had just more time, I could have charged the gun enough to punch through the Susanoo, or destroy the entire area, and pick them up one by one in the chaos.’ The demon lamented.

‘True. but this is not some terrified city, you don’t have the luxury to charge you’re attack and then fire it at your convenience.’

“Isn’t that a sad thing, right?” the demon asked out loud.

“Indeed, it is.” Came the voice of Hashirama.

While the comment of the demon was spoken out loud as a reply for the Yamato, the first Hokage has something else in mind.

“So, finally decided to show yourself?”

Hashirama did not reply. Instead he has this really intense look of focus on his face, the reason of which Naruto learned soon.

There was a cage made entirely of wood rising from the ground around the demon. But Naruto wasn’t impressed.

“You really think this flimsy thing can hold me?” Naruto said, while looking at the cage.

Expecting the cage to break easily just like in the past when the first Hokage tried to use the wood style to subdue him, Naruto was surprised and concerned that it did not break at all by the hit of his Firepunch.

Not even a little mark.

Then, as if all of this was not enough, the cage started to shrink.

“Wood Style: Demon Constricting Cage!”

Much to his horror, Naruto’s demonic energy was not responding at all.

It was as if someone had sealed his access to Yoki. Right now, he was exactly like the Shinobi whose Chakra has been sealed off.

Meanwhile, the other members of the death squad were observing this from some distance.

“Can he really hold him off?” Itachi asked.

“He should be able to. Sensei hunted and submitted many demons with this technique as an agent for the death god.” Hiruzen has the utmost confidence on his teacher’s technique.

“But how is it different from the usual Wood style?” Itachi asked another question.

“While the wood style was able to affect the tail beasts, since they did have Chakra, even though it is in a really corrosive form, demons cannot be contained with it because they don’t have Chakra. But my brother infused the natural energy into his technique, and found a way around this.” Tobirama explained the theory behind the technique.

“If only Jiraiya knew the Wood Style, I am sure he would have been able to do the same thing.” Sarutobi said, ‘Even though he didn’t perfected the Sage mode.’ He added in his head.

In the cage, the problems of Naruto are mounting. It seems along with the cage, now he too, was shrinking. Which was evident from the fact that the Hokages and Itachi were now slowly starting to tower over him.

The cage was also soaking his energy, which he could not access in the first place. Yamato clattered to the ground from the weak hands of Naruto, as he lost consciousness.

* * *

(Within the mindscape.)

Observing his surroundings, Naruto commented, “Oh, I am back here.”

This was the part of his mind where the seal of the nine tails was used to be. Naruto hated when he got exposed to this part of his mind, because for several years he thought that his mind was a sower.

But in reality, this is just one part of his mind, and he did turn it into an open forest area after he absorbed the Nine tails and became a demon.

But now, all of his progress is going backwards, including his mindscape.

The demon wanted to go outside of this area, but he knew that the rest of his mind was in chaos. Going there now could prove to be disastrous. So, he sat in the dry area where the cage of the fox used to be, now nothing more than a memory.

Speaking of memories, right about this time, some voices attracted his attention. Much to Naruto’s surprise, the voices were coming from the water.

Moving close to see what was up with that, he was surprised to see his memories playing on the screen of water, with audio present no less!

“Hmhmhmhm. Look at me, not even a proper screen to see my own memories. But then again, this has been the story of my life, isn’t it?”

As he was busy chuckling to his misfortune, the memories of his five years old started to play, starting from the day which he barely remembers, when some kids of the orphanage decided that since adults did not pay any attention to him, it would be a great idea to take his things, put him down, or generally use him as a punching bag.

Of course, those children would not have done this to anyone else, since any adult would have told them off for behaving like this. But since it was Naruto, no one minded.

But it did not took for him too long to retaliate against them, as soon those kids were found outside of the orphanage, having been left outside during the entire night, terrified beyond belief.

“Now that I do remember to compare them, those expressions looked the same as my trial. As if the fools finally realized it was a bad idea to antagonize me.”

More memories started to appear, like a playlist of short movies of his own life. his secret training, experiments with seals the price of which was paid by the people who displeased him, academy years, and of course his discovery.  
All these memories reminded the demon of his purpose, for doing all the things he had done up to this point, and their consequences.

At somewhere back of his head, there was a voice telling him to turn his back on these memories. They won’t help him to escape from the technique of the first Hokage. But Naruto try as he might, could not take his attention off from his childhood, thinking how great it would have been if his parents were alive.

Forget that, it would have been great if he had some real friends to rely upon, at least in early years. Since Neji was not someone who got introduced to him until the end of his academy days.

But wouldn’t it be so bad if he could have some friends, he didn’t have to keep secret? If Sasuke and Sakura didn’t turn out to be a such a disappointment, they would have been standing alongside him against the world.

This, and many, many more things were going through Naruto’s thoughts, that finally a voice which was not just screaming at the back of his head interrupted his musings.

“What, don’t tell me this is how everything ends?”

Turning around, Naruto observed where the voice came from, since aside from himself, no one else should be in this mindscape.

“Damn, you’re a tall one, Yamato.”

Naruto knew who it is in front of him, because at this point, he was more than familiar with Yamato’s general feeling, since they both were such a perfect match for each other.

Yamato stood where the fox would have been sealed if he was still here, standing at an imposing height.

Naruto estimated him to be almost around six feet nine inches, which from the pictures he has seen of third Raikage, they would have been of same height.

In contrast to his imposing height, Yamato’s face is not very stern, it looks like that the smiles on his face comes very easily.

This of course is not very surprising to Naruto. The way the sentient sword behaves in general did not left any doubts.

“So, how do you like the literal piece of my mind?”

“My, my. I am happy that at least even in the depression, you have not lost your snark.”

“To be honest, that would be more horrifying than being defeated by a zombie of all things.” For his snark was the only weapon during his childhood days, which made him feel strong.

“True. so, tell me again. Is this how you want the things to end?” he posed the question again.

“What?”

“Look. I have been around for six thousand years, and I will most likely be around even after you’re death.”

“but you know what? I won’t have a perfect wielder like you in future… for a very, very long time.”

“so, I would really prefer if you get off this depression, and do something about that undead plant guy, because I don’t want to lose you.” Yamato concluded, the words coming write out of his metal heart.

“’I don’t want to lose you…’ I don’t think anyone has told me those words in my life yet.”

But even if his supposably secret friends did not showed their concern like Yamato is doing now, then it is not because they are not concerned for him.

It is because he has never given them a chance.

Not to mention, all of them are relying on his future success, the plans to topple the Shinobi world to carve out a place for them to live as they please, instead being used as living weapons.

Naruto remembers the first meeting of himself and Yamato, the sword asked him at that time, why does he fight?

To be honest with himself, he admits that the answer was full of bullshit at that time.

He was extremely confident of his strength, nothing was going wrong for him at that time, and he felt that he could accomplish anything.

But he understands somewhat why he must fight. he has a responsibility to all those people who have given him their support, whether they be the two Kages along with him, or the band of secret allies.

“Not to mention, freedom. Can’t forget freedom. I will not serve as a weapon for some self-righteous killers!”

With renewed energy within his movement, the demon approached Yamato, all the signs of previous depression gone entirely.

“let’s go, Yamato, I want to give you the tour of my mind, and send some people back to the afterlife.”

With that, the former prison area started to break and shift, and turned into a desert with a giant lake of water in its center, while Yamato and Naruto disappeared, and the demon woke up once more in the outside world.

* * *

(In the wood cage.)

At this point the cage has gotten so small that everyone was sure that there is no chance that Naruto would be able to break out of it.

While the Hokages are confident, even they had some doubts. Especially when they experienced his power first hand. For the people like Itachi who have died by his hands, the effect was more noticeable.

But now? Now they did not have any doubts. The only thing which was in their mind at this point, is to make sure that Orochimaru releases them.

After all, who knows what he will make them do after this? Not to mention, unlike forth Hokage, none of them seems to be able to resist his control.

But then, they all saw some movement within the cage.

At first, they were willing to dismiss this as the last futile struggles of Naruto. but as the demon started to move more and more, without any frantic energy as well, when he got imprisoned within the cage first, they all started to worry a little.

Adding to their worry is the sudden pinched expression on Hashirama’s face, where there was only calm assurance of success before.

Then, the cage stopped shrinking all together.

“We should be ready to take him out, even if he escapes from the cage, he’ll be too week.” Is the pragmatic suggestion of Tobirama, which got the nods of agreement from the third Hokage and Itachi.

Meanwhile, Hashirama was trying to control the technique, to keep it on the track and make sure that this demon got erased. but soon a strangling cry escaped from his throat, as the cage started to expand.

Groaning and cracking, the cage was now back to its original size, just a little larger than Naruto. Hashirama tried to get back the control, but Naruto’s demonically enhanced power was too much for the already weakened technique, and he finally managed to break out of the cage with a loud explosion.

Right as he began to transform, a horrified Itachi asked, “What, what is he doing to himself?”

Much to his consternation, the Hokages did not have any answer to his question, as even during their escapade’s for the death god, they have never seen a demon do what Naruto is doing right now.

But if Orochimaru or Tsunade were here, they would have recognized what was happening. Naruto began to transform into his demon release form, with steel wings growing from his shoulders, horns on his head, and gloves covering his hands.

Just like when he killed Jiraiya, Naruto extended Yamato, and impaled a very surprised second Hokage. before the remaining two Hokages and Itachi could assist him though, Tobirama got pulled towards Naruto.

Where, another scene of horror began. he fired continuous Death Beams at the head of Tobirama, destroying his head and face in the process, and make Hashirama very distressed.

From the destroyed, and regenerating head of the second Hokage, Naruto pulled out the knife inscribed with the seal which was the anchor for him to stay in this world.

“This has caused me a lot of trouble.” Naruto said, while storing the knife within his storage dimension.

Without the anchoring seal though, Tobirama did not have anything keeping him attached to this world. thus, his soul left, while the body with a destroyed head remained behind, covered with dost.

Not wanting to give his enemies any chances, Naruto prepared a very large Water Pulse in much less time than before, and pitched it towards Itachi and the Hokages. Itachi in return, shielded both Hokages behind his Susanoo.

But Naruto was not content with just one attack. with his released form came more power, and much less cooldown with his attacks. thus, it was the constant barrage of Water Pulses, which caused the area to flood with water again. this resulted the enemies moving to some different spot, while Naruto pursued them.

‘At this rate, he would drown this entire forest.’ Yamato noted.

As the Hokages and Itachi were escaping to another area, to find them Naruto jumped on a tree. thinking this would be a great opportunity, Hashirama stopped to take advantage of this.

But Naruto dew to his much less time to charge his attacks, already had a Hyper Beam ready for the first Hokage, and this time he was not behind the protection of Itachi’s Susanoo either.

Watching as the Hashirama got engulfed in the beam, Naruto teleported to his location to make sure he won’t regenerate.

Meanwhile, Sarutobi was busy cursing his student for putting him in such a sucky situation.

It was not enough that he had to deal with so many problems when he was alive, but even in the death they still found a way to bother him.

It also is not helping his heart that he was literally being kept alive because of Itachi, another boy he failed. at this rate, he would develop a Jiraiya complex of his own, loathing himself for his failures.

Naruto decided to use his demonic clones, rather than go run around himself to search his enemies.

Other reason was that the clones gave him the advantage of allowing him to observe through them. so, if he did finds either Itachi or Sarutobi, he would know, and then he would teleport to the location.

The reason why he actually refrained from using it earlier is because he is still not used to seeing through them, it also does not help that the feeling while seeing through the clones disorientate him a lot.

But he is currently running out of strategies, and he still has to face three undying enemies, as well as many living ones. though in the case of the living enemies, it can be said that he at least could rely on some help.

One of his clones found Sarutobi, who was alone and Itachi was nowhere to be found. at first, the demon was concerned about a trap, but then he decided that it would be better to take some risks at this point. besides, he could always try to teleport and escape from the whatever trap they could possibly lay out for him, since he knew that none of them were any good with seals.

Appearing in the front of the third Hokage in a flash of gold, Naruto greeted, “Hello gramps.”

Stopping, Hiruzen observed him. “So, you found me.”

“of course. now I would have loved to talk with you. but you are currently standing in the way of my freedom!”

After the game of attack, counter attack, and defense, Naruto managed to subdue the third Hokage.

“For what it’s worth, I am really sorry. Fire Blast.”

With a large explosion, the head of the third Hokage is destroyed, and the time of Hiruzen in this world after his death came to an end.

“To be fair though, he should be angrier with his student.” Yamato tried to assuage the guilt of his wielder.

“Later Yamato!”

Naruto has to dodge out of the way, for Itachi, seeing that the demon was distracted by the third, decided to take advantage of the distraction, and attack him with his Sword of Tatsuka.

“This again.” Naruto is not happy to see another nightmare of Itachi displayed in front of him.

“Honestly, I thought we were done with this.” Even Yamato is not thrilled to see that sword.

“No shit!” Naruto dodged again, “It is more annoying than an enemy whom I thrashed in the early levels showing up again with unbelievable buffs!”

“Resistance is futile. give up.” Itachi declared, he totally thought that the line was cool.

“Why don’t you shut up? I despise you; you hear me? you and your brother, both of you are the puppets—”

A hasty dodge later, Naruto continued once more. “And both of you refused my friendship! and then you have the gall to act so high and mighty?”

Unfortunately for Naruto, it seems that his luck finally ran out, and he was unable to anticipate the last swing of Itachi in his rage. which resulted in catching the sealing blade right on his shoulder.

But Itachi needed only one stab, and he watched the demon struggle futilely against the sealing.

“You… you think you’ve won, didn’t you?”

Itachi did not say anything. But his expression is clearly saying yes.

“Well, then. Why don’t you look behind you?” the demon who is slowly getting sealed pointed.

“What?”

As Itachi watched, the demon who was supposed to be sealed slowly got disintegrated right in front of him. Itachi tried to turn around quickly, but by that point Naruto was already ready with a Galick gun.

Naruto set this entire strategy, just because he needed enough time to charge the galick gun, since it takes a while to charge.

So, this is how Itachi’s Susanoo was broken, right when he was half way turned, Naruto fired the prepared galick gun.

Of course, Itachi being an undead summoned Shinobi, would soon be recovered enough to fight once more. But even with the limitless Chakra of the dead, it takes a while to recover from the backlash of the Susanoo being broken so brutally. This is why Itachi was not ready for Naruto to teleport in front of him, and plunge his right hand within his head, after which he channeled the fire within his hand as if he was preparing a Firepunch.

This melted the knife which was being used as an anchor to Itachi’s soul in the world of living, and soon enough there was only a corpse laying there, whose scull was turned into a slag.

As if to punctuate his victory, loud clapping sound began to echo within the now destroyed and flooded clearing, as the fourth Hokage walked towards Naruto, dragging Orochimaru by his neck along with him.

“Well done, son. You’ve beaten them all.”

Naruto looked on warily as Minato kept walking towards him.

“But now, it’ll be me who would test your conviction. Prove to me that despite my mistakes, you will be top of this world!”

Naruto blocked the attack of the final remaining undead Hokage, as he discarded Orochimaru to the side and appeared within his personal space with a Kunai. The normal Shinobi tool collided with a demon blade with a clang, and the battle was on between the father and son.

Both of them teleported once more, one in a flash of yellow, another in gold. They collided once more, Naruto being much more prepared this time.

If there were any spectator to observe the battle, then they would see the flashes of gold and yellow, and both combatants appearing and disappearing, and attacking each other from a different angle, or switching their attack in a faint.

Orochimaru, tossed like a dead weight earlier, is currently experiencing the exact same thing right now.

‘How, how is he able to keep up with Minato? How!’

Being rather pragmatic, Naruto himself, much to his surprise, was relishing the chance to fight with someone who could keep up with his demonic form and its physical power and speed. So far, no Shinobi has come close to him as long as he has dawned this form for a fight.

But much too soon in the opinion of the demon, this came to an end, as he misjudged the attack of Minato, and the Rasengan sent him flying, which naturally brought a smile upon the face of Orochimaru.

Landing with a loud crash among the group of some trees, Naruto winced from the impact as the leaves showered over him. If he did not folded his wings in time, the impact would have been worse.

Knowing that Minato would find his position sooner or later, Naruto began to think how to take him out. The standard means were out of the way, no matter how powerful his attacks may be, his father was too fast to be hit by them.

The only way which presents currently itself is to immobilize him, and then take him out. But what could he use? Rikujokoro was out of the question, he will effortlessly dodge that one. And much to Naruto’s annoyance, he does not know any other demon spell which could immobilize his father.

Seals were something which he could use. but again, the fourth Hokage is not exactly someone who would be contained by the seals which he would have to draw hastily.

‘But if I can distract him with the clones, while other clones prepare an immobilizing array around the parameter… that could work.’

“You have really done well so far, I really didn’t think that you would last this long.” Minato was saying, “And also managing to hide yourself? You do have the basics down. But I do think I need to train you later for using more variety of attacks. it won’t do if you are hampered by your own limitations, right?”

Listening as the former Kage walked towards his position, Naruto decided, ‘Seals it is then.’

Minato stopped, as the demon appeared in front of him in the flash of gold. “What do you mean train me?”

“Oh nothing.” Minato said, while spinning a kunai on his finger, “When you’ll lose to me today, I will take you with me to afterlife, and then train you there.”

“And you think I would go?” he gave the blond man an incredulous look.

“Frankly? Your agreement is not required.”

With those words, the spinning, and now lightning charged Kunai was launched at Naruto’s face, which he barely avoided as it whizzed passed his head.

This time though, Naruto did not engage within a battle of teleportation’s and speed. Instead, it was the barrage of Fire Blasts, Water pulses, an occasional Hyper Beam. As a result, the area around them experienced another flood, while another side was consumed with the blazing tree, which was soon put out with a wave of water which Naruto rode to get out of the way of another of Minato’s attack, and launched another Fire Blast from the top of the Surf, which caused another fire to break out in a different side.

But he still could not stop himself from being getting cornered.

“Really? Looks like it took a lot out of you fighting former Kages and Itachi before I even arrive here.” Minato clucked his tongue.

With a kick, which Minato delivered with pure speed without using any teleportation, Naruto was knocked out cold.

Or that was what supposed to happen. Instead, he started to disintegrate as if he was made of ghostly energy, and soon there was no sign of Naruto there.

“A clone then.”

“Yes.” Naruto said, walking out of a still somehow surviving bushes, “I was quite good with them as a human you know. Who would have thought that they would be so useful even after I become a demon?”

“But not gonna lie, you rely on them too much.” Yamato criticized.

“Don’t worry, I’ll fix that too.” Minato assured.

“Yeah, only if you catch me, old man.” Naruto taunted.

“Oh, another clone then?”

“Come and find out for yourself.” Naruto motioned with his hand, ‘Come and get me.’

Minato came at him, just like he was before, without any worries or regards for his own safety. Naruto in response, turned around, and got the surprised Hokage with the steel wings.

In his next attack, Minato tried to grab on to those wings. But the only thing which he got out of that trial was some shredded hands, which repaired themselves very quickly.

But Naruto did not last as long as previously, and soon enough the former Hokage was observing the disintegration of another clone.

‘I am sure another one would step out soon enough…’

True to his prediction, there was another Naruto in front of him. But again, he did not know whether this one is a clone or not, which is very disconcerting for him since he is usually so great in sensing.

This time, the demon provided more of a challenge for the Shinobi, but again their battle did not last long. Since a loud thundercrack stole both of their attention. But the demon considers this iteration of battle more successful, since both of them ended up nearly killing Orochimaru by mistake, who thought it would be a great idea to take advantage of the distracted demon.

“Ah, it is ready then.” Minato said with a satisfied tone.

“What is?” Naruto asked, not liking where this was going.

“That pale snake wanabe may have stalled me for a while, but I can still perform this technique.”

In the sky, from the cloud came out a dragon. This is unlike the usual dragon projectiles used by the Shinobi. this beast is much more clearly defined, which made everyone feel as if the creature from the legends has appeared itself, and would be landing among them anytime soon.

“Lightning Horn, Thunder Dragon, Devastation!” Minato declared, by slashing his hand downward.

The dragon made entirely of electricity, spreads it’s wings and gave a big roar before swooping down in the area.

even as he scrambled to find a safe place, Orochimaru grumbled about how the position stealer, all around blond bastard, and the great giver of current troubles has not lost his naming habits even in the death.

The real Naruto who was busy directing the sealing effort around the area, gaped from observing the insanity coming towards him from the sky. Thus, in hurry, he created more clones, reaching the amount close to his human days for the first time ever since he became a demon. All those clones stepped out simultaneously, and prepared themselves to go against this monstrosity of a technique.

The clones began to charge the most powerful attacks within the arsenal of Naruto, from the weakest like Fire Blast, to Hyper Beam, to the strongest attack which could destroy a city, Galick gun. Minato, of course watched all of this with great interest.

All to soon in the opinion of Naruto, the dragon was on them, and the clones began to fire their attacks, hoping to overpower the technique.

“Hmhmhmhm. I created that dragon by using positive lightning, you won’t be able to overpower it so easily.”

Orochimaru, who heard this, blanched. Even the most experienced of lightning users avoid the positive lightning, since it usually backfires in a horribly spectacular fashion. And yet, there is an entire technique coming their way, consisting of it.

Much as they tried, the efforts of the clones were not enough. And Minato’s trust in his technique was proven correct, as the dragon crashed among them with a loud bang, destroying the clones easily, shocking the Orochimaru to near unconsciousness, and devastating a great area around them.

* * *

(With other battle.)

The effects of Minato’s technique can be felt here as well, as the many Shinobi either unconscious or groaning at the ground were proving currently.

Thankfully, since Raikage was using his Lightning Armor, he was able to recover quickly, and was now rallying his brother, Mei and her guards, towards the position of Naruto, while Tsunade and Gaara were barely managing to regroup.

* * *

(Back to Naruto.)

Despite his efforts, Naruto did not escaped unscathed from this attack either, but since he was able to take to the sky, and was out of the range of the dragon, only suffered some shocks.

Still, those were enough to make him crash back to the ground.

Minato approached the groaning Naruto at the ground.

“You’ve given me a great challenge, but it’s now over.” He said with a smile.

“Says who?” the demon asked with gritted teeth. The shock of the positive lightning seems to be much stronger than the normal lightning.

“Your willingness to continue is admirable, just like your mother. Even though she proved to be an uncaring, well you know what I mean.”

“Not really, but I’ll take your word for it.” Since his mother is not exactly here to show her disagreement, Naruto didn’t care one way or the another. Though his father seems to be affected deeply.

“Good—”

Naruto cuts Minato off in the middle. “But you see, you are immobilized now.”

Minato moved his arms and neck, all the while still walking towards Naruto slowly. “Are you sure?” he looked at Naruto strangely. ‘I do hope I didn’t hit him too hard.’

“Yes. I am entirely sure.” The demon stated confidently

At the corner of his eye, he noticed the seal array laid out by the Naruto clones, but he was too late in trying to escape, or neutralize it. Thus, just as Naruto said, he was now immobilized.

Naruto suddenly sprang up from the ground, seeming to be full of energy. The orange glowing eyes proved that he has prepared a Hyper Beam, which impacted with Minato. The demon looked at the cloud of dust hopefully, hoping that his father would not make a comeback.

Which now he considers it, is very ironic since in his childhood he always hoped for the return of his parents, about whom he did not knew anything.

After the dust settled down, Naruto got a look, and sagged in disappointment.

“What would I have to do to get rid of you?” he whined.

“Ah, is that really a way to talk to your father?” Minato asked, noting the lack of discipline within his son.

“But, but,” Naruto moved his arms in the air, gesticulating wildly at a loss for words.

“Don’t worry. I fought to test your resolve, to see whether you truly are capable of keeping yourself free in this world of living weapons and shields. And you have proven yourself more than enough for the task.” The fourth Hokage said, a proud smile gracing his face.

“So, you’re not dragging me to the afterlife kicking and screaming?”

“No. besides, it is time that I myself return there. Since I won’t have any work from the death god, I would be able to enjoy myself, and torment some people.” Minato gave an unhinged grin.

“Of course, that is very important.” The demon nodded.

With that, the soul of Minato, the fourth Hokage, SS rank Shinobi, and a proud father left the world of living.

“Naruto, yo!”

Allies of Naruto came just in time to see the departure of Minato, causing both A and B to sigh in nostalgia.

Naruto waved at his allies, and walked towards crawling Orochimaru. But just in time, Tsunade and Gaara, along with Kakashi, Temari, and Kankuro arrived. before Naruto could say anything though, Orochimaru spoke.

“Leave.”

“What?” they all said in surprise.

“He just took out the team consisting of S rank Shinobi entirely by himself. None of you are in any shape to fight him either. Leave.” He stated his order once more.

“True. let me give you a reason to leave as well.” Naruto said while charging the Death Beam.

Firing the beam at Kankuro, who was not able to dodge in time, since the attack was so sudden, Naruto continued.

“I always wanted to do that, you questioned me too much in the Sand.” Naruto said to the dying ninja, while referring to the time when Naruto went to rescue Gaara along with Kakashi and Sakura.

“You!” rage appeared in Temari’s eyes. If it weren’t for Gaara’s hand on her shoulder to restrain her, she would have leaped at Naruto, and probably end up dying.

“If you want any chance to defeat him, then leave now!” Orochimaru said harshly.

“And what would you do?” Tsunade asked.

“Try to hold him off.” He said, resigned to his fate.

Tsunade considered her options. But really, she admitted to herself after few seconds that she did not have any. So, she nodded grudgingly.

“Fine. Kakashi, we’re leaving.”

Maybe if this was someone else, the masked Jonin would have protested? Who knows? Besides ever since Naruto left the Leaf, the former Sensei seem to be functioning on the autopilot.

Also, it is Orochimaru. Kakashi did not have many regrets about leaving him with the tender mercies of his former student. So, he just gave a nod, jostling the unconscious Sasuke on his shoulder, and promptly speeded away with Tsunade and Gaara, Temari having carrying her brother’s body.

“That reminds me, you should leave as well.” Naruto said to his allies.

“Why?” they all asked.

“Weeelll… you see there are certain things you need to do, some places you have to be—”

“We get it.” Raikage said dryly.

“Here. It should make your travel easier.” Naruto said, while handing some sealing tags which he summoned from his dimmenssion of hidden goodies.

“Great.” Raikage grunted, and they all disappeared within the flash of gold.

Meanwhile Orochimaru was thinking how to best handle the situation. ‘Maybe it would be for the best if I transform into my white snake form…’

“Gaa!” his thoughts however, are interrupted painfully.

“What? Did you honestly thought that I would let you plan anything?” the demon asked in amusement.

“Get off me Uzomaki!”

“No.” while saying that, the demon plunged his hand within Orochimaru’s chest.

This of course caused Yamato to crack a joke about how fucked up this is…

“Shut up, Yamato! Wait, what’s this?” the demon muttered, as he felt something solid within Orochimaru… ug chest.

Orochimaru had a horrified look as Naruto began to dug within his upper body which was looking like it was getting carved by a surgent slowly. As Naruto rapped his fingers around the solid object, Orochimaru screamed in more pain as the demon pulled it out of him.

“Don’t tell me that you have gotten sloppy? Leaving instruments within yourself, how reckless can you get?” Naruto chided like the member of an elder generation.

But as he extracted whatever this was, and looked at it first time, it brought a smile on his face.

“Hmhmhmhm. You were keeping this hidden within your own body? Props for the guts. But I will deduct points for fumbling up and coming here, you should have stayed in the Leaf.”

“What would you know of brains? You are after all nothing more than aaaaaah!” never been someone who took the questioning of his intelligence lying down, Orochimaru tried to give a withering reply, which Naruto interrupted painfully.

“That… is a peculiar choice of… causing pain.” Yamato said, as Naruto ignited his fist in Firepunch without taking his hand outside of Orochimaru.

“So, I guess you are now fisting him—”

“Pink scabbard Yamato! And I am going to paint you’re handle also pink for a weak!”

“Noooooo!” the sword let out a howl of suffering, “Please don’t do that,”

As Yamato continued to beg for his dignity, something something pride, something something reputation, Naruto took a closer look of the object.

One may wonder why exactly some object was keeping his attention like that? the reason is simple. Naruto had finally found the tenth and final Akatsuki ring, kept hidden by Orochimaru all this time.

“Unify.” A ring appeared at the finger of Naruto, which showed the kanji for ten. After that, he just removed it, and throws it in his dimension without a second look.

“Rejoice Yamato! For now, we can go to the demon world.” He said happily.

“And I’ll never make fun of you again, what?” the sword’s apologies came to a screeching halt as he processed the final sentence. “Damn it has been long.”

“And as for you.” Naruto said to the Orochimaru who was laying at his feet panting pitifully.

The glowing Death Beam appeared at the index finger of Naruto, as he aimed at the Orochimaru. “Time to die.”

Orochimaru, despite the fear of death, was more furious than terrified. He was about to be killed by someone who has only lived the quarter of his age. Despite all those experiments, possessing various bodies, getting rejected by those bodies, scheming, and scheming, and scheming some more just to avoid this situation, he ended up in this situation all the same.

“No! I refuse to die by the hands of a—”

“Demon? Pretty speciest of you.”

“No! I refuse to die by someone inferior of myself. I am Orochimaru! One of the Sannin—”

“A drunk, a pervert, and a pedophile. Yes, we all know.”

“I am supposed to find the immortality! I won’t die, I can’t die!”

“Too bad. That is exactly what’s gonna—”

A loud cracking sound occurred and the blood of Naruto was splattered on Orochimaru.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We cut to the stage, where a hansom looking guy is explaining some stuff.
> 
> Author: You see, Naruto knows that Minato is his father. But he also knows that the Minato won't know that, so he is just egging him on.
> 
> The clapping started up, and the guy on the stage flushed from the praise--
> 
> (Cut to the real world.)
> 
> *Cricket chirps*
> 
> sigh, no one likes my story.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23.

Horrifying cave.

(With Naruto.)

Naruto looked down, to see a hole within his stomach, through which he could see blurrily at his back, since apparently whatever made that hole, entered from his back.

Few seconds later, the pain finally registers, and the demon began to swear profusely.

“I would shove Yamato down their throat—”

“Leave me out of this!” but the sword refuses to be the object of such cursing.

Crack! Splat!

Another sound, another wound appeared on the body of Naruto, and the swearing began anew.

Orochimaru of course, was watching all of this with an awed expression. While it is true that back when they all cornered Naruto in the Leaf after his trial, and with their combined attacks managed to wound him, it still did took all of them to accomplish that back at that time. even the Hokages and dead Akatsuki members have to work with each other to wound him.

And yet here he is seeing just one figure firing something strange at Uzomaki, and wounds appearing on his body.

Orochimaru heard the footsteps of this mysterious attacker of Uzomaki, not sure whether that person would be friend or foe.

‘Okay, I don’t have any friends. So, let’s see whether that person would be ally or an enemy…’

“Oy,” apparently this mysterious attacker is judging from the voice appears to be a female, “That person on the ground, I suggest you leave.”

At any other situation, Orochimaru would have been fuming in anger after being addressed as a “Person on the ground.” But in this case, he got up in hurry, and started to move towards the direction of Tsunade and others.

‘Judging by the time, they must not be too far from here, I should be able to reach them.’ He thought, while running away with impressive speed, especially considering the beating he took from the hands of Naruto few minutes ago.

“And where do you think you’re going? Erk!” Naruto was saying as he moved towards Orochimaru, but another hole in his torso made him stop in his track and turn around in annoyance.

All the while, Orochimaru disappeared in the distance.

“You!” Naruto gritted his teeth at his attacker who stood in front of him, “Do you have any idea how hard is it to kill him? I swear he is worse than a cockroach! I don’t even know whether I would have another chance in the future, and as if all of this is not enough, he could jeopardize my entire plan! My glorious wonderful plan of laying devastation to the Shinobi world so they would be in so much disarray that they would never think of coming after me, or thinking to use me as their weapon, are all now in danger, just because of you!” the demon finally finished his rant, huffing heavily in the end.

“So what? In few moments, you won’t be alive for worrying about all that.” the female attacker also fails to understand why exactly is it her problem.

Taking a closer look to his attacker, Naruto saw that she was dressed in very different style than anywhere from elemental nations. That blue colored cloak which fluttered every once in a while, the skirt which concealed a lot of legs behind them, as they fluttered even when there was no breeze in the area.

What specially tipped Naruto off though, was her weapon, He has not seen a gun outside of the demon world. Though when he was there, Jin Wuya explained to him at the other side of the planet they are very common.

‘Hm. looks to be modified specially for her.’ He noted the different design.

“We’ll see about that.” Naruto said, “What’s with the fluttering?” he asked in a mocking tone.

“You!” the tone has the intended effect.

After Naruto’s notice, her clothes stopped fluttering. ‘It’s not my fault if I get excited and my ability goes out of control a little…’ she thought in her mind.

After she composes herself, the ‘Attacker in the revealing clothing’ as she is dubbed in Naruto’s head, started to speak, regaining her earlier confident tone compare to her flustered one just a minute ago.

“Names Lydia by the way.”

“And why should you give your name so freely?” this goes against everything which Naruto considers important enough not to do in front of a superior enemy, (He should know, he is one,) as well as the Shinobi doctrine of secrecy.

“Because you won’t be alive to get any use out of it.” She replied to his question with a smirk.

“Hmhmhmhm.” Naruto chuckled, as the sphere of Water Pulse grows in his palm, “You really should not make threats on people whom you can’t follow up on.”

Firing the water pulse, Naruto observes the reaction of Lydia, which appeared to be unnaturally smooth.

‘It is as if, she is using wind itself to enhance her movement.’

‘Because she is.’ Yamato said mentally, ‘She is a Sylph, elemental demons who are good with manipulation of air.’

‘Damn! What is she doing in the human world?’ as far as Naruto is concerned, demons shouldn’t have much interest in the human world. (Aside from himself, he considers himself to be the special case. After all, he was born here.)

‘You shouldn’t care about that now. Her weapon can fire the wind enhanced bullets, that is why they did so much damage to you.’

Naruto have to disengage with Yamato in hurry, as Lydia brought her gun to fire at him. He also noticed why Yamato just called it ‘Weapon,’ the sword is seeing a modern-day weapon for the first time.

With a loud sound of ‘Crack!’ Lydia fired at the demon, but this time, Naruto was able to dodge the bullet just in time, since he was prepared. Two more shots were fired, one of which was swatted to his left by the use of Yamato, and the other one arrived too late to do anything.

Before the woman could fire another shot at him, Naruto was ready with the Fire Blast, the symbol of kanji for fire glowing proudly on the attack. taking advantage of the explosion, Naruto managed to get out of sight of Lydia, and then nearly took her head off from behind.

Naruto did not know how, but Lydia managed to avoid his slash, and after turning around, she began to fire bullets at him without stopping, each hit being punctuated by Naruto’s loud cursing. This continued until he teleported in a flash of gold.

* * *

(With Hokage and company.)

Kakashi was carrying the knocked out Sasuke, and Temari was carrying the body of Kankuro, this of course was the evidence of their failure to defeat Naruto.

All of them were silent, until Kakashi broke it.

“Lady Tsunade, someone is approaching.”

“Can you tell who are they?”

“No.” ‘Unfortunately I am not a sensor.’ Kakashi thought sarcastically.

“Would you need assistance?” Gaara offered.

“No Kazekage. You have a lot of responsibilities. You should leave for the Sand immediately.”

At first, Gaara wanted to argue against it, but after taking a look of Temari, at her really vacant expression, the Kazekage gave a nod and disappeared with his sister.

But soon enough, all their worry turned out for nothing, since the person who came in their view was Orochimaru, looking haggard as if he barely escaped.

“Orochimaru,” Tsunade asked in surprise, “How did you escape?”

“I didn’t.” was his flat answer.

“What?”

“There was this woman who attacked Uzomaki with a strange weapon, right when he was about to kill me.” Orochimaru provided a more detailed summary.

“Should we go and help her?” Tsunade asked considering the option.

“No. I do think whoever she may be, she can handle herself if she can wound Uzomaki like that. besides, none of us are in any condition to help anyone, much less fight along with someone. We’ll only get in the way.” He also was getting a very unsettling feeling from her.

“You’ve given a lot of thought to this.”

“While coming here, this was the only thing in my mind.”

“Anyway, since we are not going back there to help this mysterious attacker, we should go back to the Leaf.” Tsunade arrives on her decision.

“agreed.” Both of her subordinates agreed.

* * *

(With Naruto and the mysterious Lydia.)

After few more beheading, stabbing, slashing, and general attempts of killing the bitch who just moves too smoothly, and acquiring some more holes in his body, (Why were they healing so slowly?) Naruto is considering to use a city-wide destructive attack to take Lydia out.

Of course, the problem with those is that your opponent may survive, and then you would be too winded to do anything else. Of course, not everyone is Naruto Uzomaki, with inhuman (heh!) amounts of stamina, except even Naruto has his limits.

Fighting with the legendary Hokages, taking out the undead members of Akatsuki, it all takes a tole after a while. although killing them did not took much energy, all the running around, and planning they made him do, did take a lot of energy.

“Huff… huff… I’ll kill you; you hear me?”

Now if only he could follow up on that threat, he’ll be golden.

Lydia moved close to him in her smooth walking fashion, as if there is no air resistance for her. She did not even fear that he might take a swipe at her, which he did the very second she got close to him.

Punching his arm, making his hand redirect and drop Yamato with contemptuous ease, Lydia spoke.

“Hush now, you did try you’re best.” She said in an encouraging tone, which made the demon just more depressed.

With a click clack sound, she put the gun to Naruto’s forehead, and said, “Time to sleep.”

Bang!

With that, the brain and blood splattered everywhere.

Approaching Yamato which was dropped by the exhausted demon earlier, Lydia picked up the sword. “Now, obey me.” she orders, “Open the gate.”

“And why would I do that?” the sword asked.

“Because I am now your wielder. You will do as I say.” She commanded, which Yamato decided that he didn’t like one bit.

“Hmhmhmhm. You really must be full of yourself if you think you can wield me. While my wielder is alive no less!”

“What?” Lydia turned to Naruto, who she saw, was now standing up from where he fell after she fired the shot, “Impossible! I splattered his brain everywhere!”

“You missed a spot.” He said darkly.

“Y—you’re a monster! —” she said in a tremulous tone, getting away from him slowly.

“Hahahahahahahaha!” Naruto roared with laughter at that declaration.

“No one can survive something like that, demon or not!” Yamato however, did liked her surprised tone, which gave him a hard rejection for some reason.

‘Better keep it to myself.’ He decided not to tell his wielder.

“Unfortunately for you, most people are not me.”

Yamato spoke then, who is still clutched within the hands of Lydia, “Even if Naruto would have been dead, I would have never allowed you to wield me out of shear hatred.” Yamato punctuated his statement with a nasty shock to Lydia, causing her to drop him.

But before he could fall to the ground, Naruto summoned him within his hands. Taking advantage of the rattled state of the Sylph, Naruto teleported close to her, not wanting her to have any chance of evading him with her speed, and grabbed her neck.

“I am really sorry, but I’M still not good with this lightning thing.” Focusing the lightning element through his hand, Naruto shocked Lydia who was still trying to get away from him.

But the shock was proved to be too much for her, and she lost the consciousness.

“Weak.” He declared.

Naruto was not impressed. He has taken more punishment than this during his time as a human, and yet a demoness was taken out by just few shocks?

“Well, I do think she is one of those people who are good with range, but when you get close to them, they fold like a well… folding chair?” the sword tried to say something profound.

“Really? You couldn’t come up with something better?” Naruto looked at his sword with disappointment.

“Shut up, as if you could do any better. What are you going to do with her anyway?” the flustered Yamato asked.

“She is my prisoner. I want information from her.” Was the simple answer of Naruto, after which he decides to leave before anymore crazy people come to attack him.

Flames started to spin around Naruto and Lydia, and both of them disappeared from the clearing. They appeared within an underground place of some sort, where Naruto puts Lydia in a small room, with chains holding the sealing script to bind any sort of energy use, whether it be Chakra or Yoki.

Naruto took the gun and deposited the weapon in a place where Lydia if somehow managed to get out of her chains, would not find it. he also tied her fingers for good measure, it would not do if she could do something like Shinobi do with hand signs, now would it?

All the while Yamato talked about how he doesn’t have to be so dramatic when teleporting.

Exhausted with the events of the day, Naruto went to the room of this hideout, had a nice shower for himself, and after saying goodnight to Yamato, fell asleep.

* * *

(Next morning.)

Waking up after a nice sleep, Naruto performed all the morning rituals, had a nice breakfast, and checked on Lydia, who was still knocked out.

“seriously, I expected her to at least make an attempt to escape in the night.” Again, Naruto is disappointed by the female demon.

“It just goes to show that she is a glass cannon.”

“And not even a good one at that.” Naruto said thinking, ‘At least her recovery rate should be better.’

“True. but I’ll be honest with you Naruto, Sylphs are stronger than what you saw yesterday. Don’t underestimate her.” Yamato cautioned.

“I won’t. But mind explaining what exactly the Sylph is?” Naruto wanted to know more about the strange demoness imprisoned within his hideout.

As Naruto listened, Yamato began to explain. “Sylphs are the demons who are very good with wind manipulation. So much so that it is rare that they would have any element other than wind under their belt.”

“You saw how she moved, that too is the result of the wind element. Basically, air doesn’t offer them much resistance, as a result they are quite fast.”

“Of course, it is also very easy to agitate them, thus resulting in some… interesting displays as you saw yesterday.”

“Ah the fluttering skirt.” Naruto said with a fond tone.

“Yep.”

“So, what are we going to do next?” the sword asked, always ready for a new adventure.

“I am glad you asked,” Naruto said, as he pulled the ring out of the storage dimension, “Now that I have all of these rings, I should be able to absorb the demon from whom the tail beasts came from.”

“But it still doesn’t answer why you need the rings,” the sword is still confused about that part.

“Simple. Even with all my preparations, I am not ready to use the soul absorption on that demon. But these rings which I have combined into one, should channel his power on to me, and then I will be able to absorb its power without losing it, or diluting in the process.”

“Great. but where is that demon?”

“Oh, it is at some underground lair beneath a mountain. I got the address of that place from that ghost masked guy, the one which I killed on the rainy village.”

“Ah him. So, when are you going to teleport there?”

“Right after I lock this place tight, tighter than a virgin pussy.” Naruto said with a grin, proud of his crass joke.

“Ah man, few more comments like that, and I am sure the other gender would consider you an irredeemable monster.”

“But Yamato, I already am an irredeemable monster.”

As Naruto started to activate the seals around the hideout, as well as some other defenses, like the automated golems, Yamato said, “You do realize that you are doing all of this to lock a female here?”

“I fail to see why this should change my admittedly funny comments.”

Five minutes later, and some circular reasoning applied on each other as a counter to each other’s arguments, Naruto and Yamato by proxy were ready to leave.

* * *

(Mountain’s Graveyard.)

Flames started to spin, and out of the flames walked out Naruto Uzomaki, the demon extraordinaire.

“Seriously, do you have to praise yourself so much?” Yamato asked, not at all impressed with the commentary within the head of his wielder.

“Don’t question my narcissism, Yamato!”

“Whatever. You shouldn’t have waisted your energy in those flames. You might need that inside… holy hell that must have been a huge animal!” Yamato exclaimed, after Naruto got close to the cave underneath the mountain, and the sword got to observe the surrounding area, in which the bones of a large unidentified animal jutted out from the ground.

Stopping to admire the creature who existed unknown amount of years ago, Naruto walked in the cave.

“So,” as Naruto stepped into the cave, Yamato asked, “Who, or what are we looking for?”

“You see, there is this statue—holy hell that is a one ugly and huge thing!” Naruto exclaimed.

Naruto has seen many large creatures, from giant toads to huge snakes and slugs, as well as people who can enlarge themselves, along with Chakra abominations like tail beasts.

But this statue was even bigger than all of them.

“Sooo, is it what we are looking for?”

“Yes.”

The statue looks like a giant green colored mummified corpse, with spike like protrusions within its body, and a large scroll within its mouth.

Out of the nine eyes, only second, eighth, and the ninth were close, the rest were open with a blue sclera within them. finally, the ankles and the wrists of the statue are bound with shackles.

“That’s one hideous thing.” Yamato agreed with his wielder.

“Hideous or not, I can feel the power coming from this.” Naruto said seriously.

“Wait, aren’t the other tail beasts are inside of that thing?” Yamato remembers what Naruto told him; about how six out of nine demons have been sealed in that thing.

“Yes. Fortunately, when I am done with this thing, there won’t be any tail beasts left in this world, apart from Jyuki and Medatabi—” Naruto suddenly stopped speaking.

“Naruto?” Yamato asked, “What’s wrong?”

Now, Naruto knows that he is not the sanist person, having a beast seal within you since you were a baby can do that. But he felt just now as if that statue was calling to free itself, whatever that means.

“Yamato, that statue is calling to free it.”

“What?” the sword is alarmed at such a development.

“I don’t know what it means by that, but I think I should do what I came here to do as soon as possible.” Naruto decided, before whatever screaming in his head tries to take control of him.

“Right. Don’t take any chances, that thing looks like it was used to be the part of some ancient great demon. We shouldn’t risk its awakening.” Yamato surmised.

Nodding at Yamato’s possible prediction, Naruto walked to the statue with some hesitation, expecting it to suddenly start moving and grab him or something.

But nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the strange feeling increased as he got close enough.

“All right, that should be good enough, right?” Naruto asked to the empty cave.

“Right. No need to get too close, it might really decide to grab you.” Yamato, however, answered his question, just like how a good sentient sword is supposed to.

“Perils of being wanted by everyone,” Yamato laughed at this statement of his wielder. Realizing what he just said, Naruto hurriedly declared, “Soul Extraction!”

Just like when Naruto used this on nine tails, a sound reverberated within the cave, as if some ancient door after many years of remaining close as well as gathering a lot of rust, finally is opening.

Naruto expected to struggle for power with the statue, but nothing of the sort happened. The power of the great ten tails flowed within Naruto smoothly.

But as he was absorbing the final portion, Naruto started to see strange visions.

‘Memories,’ he realized.

Unexpectedly for the demon, the memories started to play faster and faster, while his brain could not help but keep up with the information. Naruto tried to close his eyes, but it did not help either. The memories just kept playing one after another.

A woman, who Naruto thought that she was not the native of this planet planting a tree, the tree producing a fruit, everyone getting entangled within the roots of that tree, remaining within the dream like state…

Of course, the memories did not stop there. The sons of the woman rebelled against her, sealing the monster of a tree within the moon, while its Chakra sealed up in one of the brothers, later that Chakra was divided within the nine parts, the parts which will later be known as tail beasts.

This statue was the only thing remained of that monster after its power was stripped.

But of course, the last memory was the most traumatic for Naruto. the people who were tangled within those roots, they are still within the body of this statue, having turned into strange plant like creatures.

* * *

(Sometime later…)

Slowly, Naruto got his senses back. His thoughts were groggy for few moments, but after putting some effort in opening his eyes, his brain shifted its gear, and started to think how he ended up here, where ever it may be.

‘I was overwhelmed by those memories, specially the last one. All those people, trapped like that, slowly forgetting their existence…’ he shivered at such a thought of something like this happening to him.

After a while of looking around, turning his head this way and that, his eyes got used to the darkness within the area. But even within this darkness, Naruto knew where he has ended up.

“Ah man, this place again?” wasn’t that enough that the bastard of a first Hokage sent him here once?

At least the floor where he woke up is dry, thank universe (Never gods, screw the gods!) for small mercies.

However, before Naruto could try to get out of this mental landscape, and fix it again, or contact Yamato, a voice startled him.

“Ah, you are awake.”

A most unwelcomed voice.

“Wait, you’re still alive?” he asked.

“Why, have you any doubts?” the voice answered smugly.

“Well…” the demon was not sure how to answer that one.

“anyway kid, we need to talk about your future.” The voice finally came into view, revealing Kurama the nine tailed fox in all of his glory.

“What? And why are you talking to me so calmly?” ‘Shouldn’t he snarl at me? At least that way it would feel normal.’ Naruto thinks to himself.

“Why would you ask such a strange question? Don’t you remember how despite my hatred, your bull-headed stubbornness caused me to consider you my friend?” the fox looked at him as if he is slowly losing his mind.

‘Come to think of it, I very well might be.’

After hearing this, Naruto has a disbelieving expression on his face, but the shocks were not ending there, as the nine-tail fox continued.

“Now that you and I have befriended each other—”

“In your dreams!” He never agreed to anything like that!

“We’ll need to go over our plans for the destruction of the Leaf, as well as the Shinobi villages.” Heedless to his protest, the fox went on anyway.

Despite his constant trying, Naruto still is unable to leave this place, nor he can contact Yamato. And, is this place getting brighter?

“Okay, what are your suggestions?” ‘If I am going mad, might as well go there all the way.’ Was the justification of Naruto.

“First of all, I will have to release the seal which kept your bloodline limits hidden up to now.” Seeing that the boy seems to be regaining his senses, the fox started to recount the plan, really the things he must do for his rather week memory.

“Bloodline limits?” Naruto asked with a frown.

“Yes. You already have the wood release—”

Displeased, Naruto cut the fox off once more, “How? Last I checked, I was not related with Senju clan at all.”

“Fine. Allow me to explain.” The Fox said with the flourish of his tails. “Wood release is a mutation. And as we all know; mutations are not exclusive to any one clan. But that is not why you have the wood release. You have it because the Uzomaki clan had a long relation of marrying with Senju clan. With that relation, you always had the potential of acquiring the wood release, except that manipulative old crone sealed it in the fear that you might rebel one day.”

‘That doesn’t even make any sense! Well aside from the marriage part…’ Naruto observed how animatedly Nine Tail Fox was explaining everything to him. And is it getting brighter around here?

“Since I have the nine tails, I can give you nine bloodline limits of your choosing.” The fox said another, and even more absurd statement, in Naruto’s opinion.

“What?” which he expressed eloquently.

“Of course, you must have ten women, with whom you will need to sire children who would carry those bloodline limits to the next generation.”

Naruto at this point, was not listening to Nine Tails. Instead, he was focusing on the increasingly brighter light. It seems to him a much safer option, after all watching light getting brighter and brighter will not erode his sanity.

Sadly, for him, Naruto was not able to tune the damn Fox out for too long, as he heard the rustling of some papers, and he made a grave mistake of paying attention to the insanity.

“I have some suggestions,” the Fox pointed to the papers which he has just taken out… from who knows where, “That busty woman and her assistant, the blond girl who owns the flower shop, that girl who loves weapons,” the list just went on and on, while Naruto could do nothing else other than listen.

“Then there are plans to conquering the world, destroying the Shinobi villages, and the feudal lords, and bringing this entire region to under you’re rule…”

Naruto has no will to rule the world. the only reason why he embarked on his insane plan to cause as much damage as possible to Shinobi world, is because they will be to occupied by fixing themselves, rather than come after him and try to make him a weapon which they can use.

Besides, Naruto did not want the responsibilities of a ruler. After all, what rulers are, if nothing more than people shackled with responsibilities, with fancy titles?

They can’t even have sex in peace! ‘Looks like the insanity is getting to me, why would I go and jump around the topics so much?’

“And of course, we’ll begin everything from Leaf and Land of Fire.”

on that declaration, light filled the entire musty sower, making Naruto close his eyes. Soon enough, he lost consciousness once more, this time happy to welcome the darkness.

* * *

(Back to the Mountain’s Graveyard, within the cave.)

Dazed from his recent experiences Naruto opened his eyes, to finding himself on the floor of the cave, feeling stiff for lying in one position for too long.

“Naruto? Naruto! are you okay?” Yamato asked with an urgent voice.

“I’m okay Yamato, I just had a really horrifying dream.” Naruto assured, feeling his voice quite hoarse as if he was screaming a lot not too long ago.

“Yeah, you were screaming pretty loudly, and not of the good kind either!” the sword confirmed his thoughts.

“Ah, foolish Yamato. Don’t you know that only other ones are supposed to scream, while we give them the reason to scream the scream of the good kind?” Naruto said sagely.

“Sure. what was the nightmare, anyway?” ignoring the dubious wisdom, Yamato asked another question.

Getting up from his seated position from the ground, Naruto refused to talk about it. “I don’t wana talk about it.”

“But, but,” Yamato wanted details dammit! How is he supposed to Blackmail Naruto? To make sure that he won’t use the horrible pink scabbard on him?

“No!” ‘The images, the plans, why won’t they go away?’ Naruto wanted to cry, but no tears would come.

Naruto saw once he was back to the position from where he assumed that he was sent flying, that the statue was nothing more than a crumbling antique piece.

“Here’s the one for giving me the nightmare!” Naruto said, as he fired a low powered Fire Blast.

But that low power attack turned into a massive one, and Naruto has to leave in hurry that section, lest he be buried with the remains of that damn nightmare giving statue.

“What the hell was that?” Yamato asked.

“My guess is that I have become much more powerful in short amount of time. I’ll need to control this.” Naruto explained while running from the fire which he caused.

“Oh, don’t worry. I can help you with that. along the way, you will also get used to the lightning element.” The sword, unconcerned with the flames, assured his wielder.

“Great. I assume that since I will be using an unfamiliar element, I would be able to get the control over the increased power of mine, as well as gain a new element for use?” considering this question, we can all conclude that the demon himself is not much concerned by the fire he caused.

“Yep—oh in the name of old devils! what the hell is that?” the sword suddenly screamed.

Turning around from where he was walking, Naruto saw that while he was talking to Yamato, he has arrived within a lab of sorts, with instruments of a surgent laying in an organized pile at one corner, an operation table at another corner, and what horrified Yamato was in another corner…

“The hell? I thought that I destroyed these god damned eyes when I vaporized Itachi’s corpse!”

At the final corner, there was a collection of jars filled with some preservative liquid, within those jars floated Sharingan eyes of dead Uchihas.

“Well then? I will destroy these ones tooo!” with a roar, another Fire Blast was unleashed, causing a big explosion, and Naruto and Yamato fled from the lab.

stopping to rest from his brief run because of his own attack, (Damn traitor, how dare it betray its own creator?) Naruto took a look around of his surroundings.

Finding a door of sorts, Naruto opened it in a hope that it would lead him out of this damn cave. He might have come here to absorb the power of an ancient demon, but he has enough of this place already.

Besides, he has accomplished his purpose, no need to stay here anymore.

Sadly, for Naruto, where he ended up is not an exit, nor it provided any way back to exit.

Looking around the room where he has ended up, Naruto saw that there is a bed at one corner, by the size of it, it looked to be good enough for one person. On the other side though, is something else.

“Is that, is that the great, great grandpa Hokage?” Naruto said out loud.

On the other corner, there is a clone which has a tree growing out of it, looking like the First Hokage.

“Old habits die hard…” Yamato mocked.

“Shut up, Yamato.” Despite trying, Naruto just could not bring himself from calling Sarutobi grandpa, or the other Hokages great grandpa or great, great grandpa.

Walking around the clone, Naruto said, “Man, this place is just one nightmare after another.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Well, time to burn this.” Instead of using a Fire Blast, Naruto just sent a flame of the size of a small fireball to burn the clone.

But underneath the clone, a passage was revealed, containing the many, many white plant men, just like the one who was killed by B in his assault to Akatsuki.

“That is, it. I have enough, I am burning this whole place down!” the demon declared, having been fed-up with the secret horrors of this place.

“Oh hell.” Yamato just knew that it won’t end well for either of them.

Naruto transformed into his demonic form, as the symbol of kanji for fire appeared. Preparing the biggest Fire Blast up to this point, Naruto let go of the attack, collapsing the entire mountain in the process, while he teleported out of the burning wreckage.

“We should leave, this will attract attention.” Of course, Yamato didn’t wish to be buried within the burning wreckage.

“Right.”

In a flash of gold, Naruto teleported back to his nice, and sane hideout.

* * *

(Back to the hideout.)

Lydia woke up after two or so hours later Naruto left her, cursing him for shocking her like that.

She did not think that just one shock would rattle her so badly, or Naruto would prove to be so strong against her.

Of course, the rumors were running wild about how a demon finally managed to find the legendary sword Yamato, so she decided to track this demon.

Imagine her surprise when she found this demon in such a backward part of the human world. She also as a result, underestimated him. after all he barely looks to be old enough to be in his mid-teens, as the humans call it. while she is a two-thousand-year-old Sylph, the strongest of the wind manipulators, and even among them she is considered to be a prodigy.

But here she is now, bound in chains so thoroughly that she could not even move, let alone command the winds, since something on the chains is interfering with her control.

She also did not have her gun in any close proximity of herself, that just made her more frustrated. Even if she managed to get out of the chains, without her weapons she did not have enough confidence in herself to face Naruto.

Of course, before she ended up here, she would have been not so concerned about Naruto. but that demon has rattled her so badly. Even now, she is not sure why she is kept here.

her ruminations were interrupted by the footsteps out of the sell, after which the door opened, and Naruto walked in.

he is looking much better in comparison to yesterday, for one he is not looking like he has been fighting all day long, and then someone decided to make holes within his torso.

Although, there is a haunted look on his face, as if he has seen some disturbing things recently. Which is preposterous! Demons do not get disturbed. 

“So, come to gloat?” she asked, not willing to show her fear.

“Eh, not really. Besides, just one punch and shock later you were out like a light which has been not changed for a while. Can’t do much gloating to someone like that, now can I?” Naruto said honestly.

“You!” though his honesty is not appreciated in the slightest, how odd.

“I am more interested in why exactly do you want my friend Yamato.” He asked with a serious tone.

“Friend? you consider a mere sword a friend?” Lydia couldn’t believe her ears.

the atmosphere of the sell suddenly changed, the temperature got much colder in comparison to before, and Naruto’s body language shifted from standing relaxed, to alert and threatening.

“I’ll be more careful if I was in your place. It wouldn’t take me much to kill you right where you sit.” He said, barely controlling himself from snapping her neck in her chair.

“Oh? why don’t you then?” she said defyingly.

“Very well.”

gathering a small fireball in his right palm, Naruto throws it towards Lydia, making her scream in surprise, as well as fear.

Looking at Naruto after her face got slightly scorched, she was not sure whether she should call this a bluff or not. He might very well decide to kill her right now.

After that display, Naruto once more stood in a relaxed posture. “Now, talk. Why do you want Yamato, and how did you know that I hold him?”

“Okay,” Lydia croaked. Coughing a little she once more said this time without any fear, “Okay.”

“I wanted the sword, because it is said to be the most powerful weapon for a demon. I thought that if I did had Yamato, I could challenge even the overlords.” She explains the reasons.

Naruto just shook his head. Naruto may have not seen her full strength, but he knew that she is not ready to face any demon overlord.

“I learned about its wielder from the rumors running in the demon realm. I tracked those rumors to this part of the human world, and I thought that they were nothing more than exaggerations.” She said, while regretting her earlier thoughts. Maybe if she was more cautious, she wouldn’t be in this position.

“Clearly I was wrong.” She concluded.

“Now, was that really hard?” Naruto asked with a bright grin.

“Shut up.” Lydia said, depressed.

“Anyway, Yamato is not a ‘It.’ He is a male, and quite a hot blooded one.” The demon said proudly.

“Yeah,” the sword chimed in at this point, “And maybe I would let you wield me, if you promise to put me between—”

“Pink scabbard, you pervert!”

“But, but the legs—” Yamato tried to justify himself.

“No arguments.” Naruto said sternly, while wondering about why everyone around him is such a pervert.

“Fine, spoil sport.” Yamato agreed in the name of protest.

“Now, the question is, what to do with you?” the demon looked at her consideringly.

“Let me go?” Lydia fluttered her eyelashes.

“Try again.” He was not impressed with that seduction attempt.

“If she were to go in the demon world, and blabbed about you, your plans would be screwed Naruto.” Yamato pointed out.

“Dammit!” Naruto cursed. He didn’t want to keep her imprisoned all the time, nor he wanted her to be around himself in any shape or capacity.

“What exactly are you planning anyway?” Lydia asked curiously, all this secrecy aroused her curiosity.

“Oh nothing. I was just thinking of challenging one of the overlords.” Naruto said nonchalantly.

“Hahahahahahaha! You? challenge one of the overlords? Forget it. you know what? Watching you get crushed in the battle, that alone is enough for me to keep my silence.” She couldn’t believe that she was afraid of this crazy bastard.

“Oh yeah?” Naruto tried to sound menacing, taking her laugh as a question against his strength.

“Yes.” She said flatly.

“Fine then. I’ll release you. but you must do something for me.” Naruto said with his best poker face. According to the old Shinobi manual, it is important while making a deal, the other party does not find out anything about your current feelings through your facial expression, or your body language.

“Why would I do that?” Lydia asked, not seeing what is it in for her.

“Because this would let me reach the overlord which I am thinking of challenging soon, and then you will get to see whether I proved you wrong, or you turned out to be right about me.” He explained.

“Deal!” she agreed quickly. She couldn’t wait to see his broken body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By this point, I do hope you realize that I suck at titling my chapters.
> 
> The delirious dream is a parody of various Naruto fanfic tropes.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24.

Return of the sage, and hallucinations.

(with Tsunade, Hokage’s office.)

Glaring at the paperwork as if it has been the cause of all of her problems, Tsunade thought about everything which happened on the Land of Iron.

They took an elite Jonin, along with two of the Sannin, (As well as the only surviving Sannin, she thought, with a twinge in her heart,) along with a Kage, as well as two more Jonin with them.

They knew that the combat would happen, sooner or later the enemy would make a move, but whether things would end so badly, they couldn’t have anticipated.

As if all of this was not enough, they also brought with them the team of nine S rank Shinobi, all of them undead, always moving and healing until the enemy is dead.

Yet, they failed.

Not just failed mind you, failed badly, and lost the Kazekage’s brother in the process. Tsunade didn’t expected to have any help from that side for a while, nor she has the face to ask of them anything.

Although despite the loss of Kankuro, they all escaped with exhaustion and some injuries as their only price from the hole debacle. Still, the coming time is not looking any good, since the balance of power is relying on the one of the most deceitful men. Tsunade didn’t have much confidence in Anoki.

‘Either he’ll join his side, or remain neutral.’

But she remembers that Naruto didn’t exactly gave the option of neutrality to the old man. But still, she knows how the feelings between the Leaf and Rock have been up to this point, and Anoki is very stubborn.

Still, as the leader of her village, the responsibility of everyone’s survival rested on her head, and she needed to make her next move. First and foremost, she will secure the important countries and villages, on which Leaf relied on for their weapons and trade.

And then, she might have to wait for some time, as one of her Shinobi returns from his training.

* * *

(Flashback, two months ago after Naruto’s escape.)

Tsunade was in another meeting, she felt that lately she has been participating in too many meetings. But such as the responsibilities of a Kage, she has to coordinate the recovery process of the Leaf.

This meeting was different. No, things were still not looking great for them suddenly, but the reason of such difference is that instead of humans, Tsunade is having this meeting with the representatives of the summons.

Toads and snakes have sent their representatives, while a part of Katsuyu is representing the slugs.

“Before we can begin our meeting, I think we should explain certain things to our human ally.” The slug boss suggests.

“Agreed.” The snake representative hissed, while the toad representative also gave his assent.

“First of all,” the slug boss continued, “Tell me milady, what do you know of demons?”

“If you would have asked this question just few months ago, I would have given you the example of the tail beasts. But as of now? It would be safe to admit that I really don’t know much about them.”

“But don’t you have missions regarding them?” the snake representative asked.

“It is true. but still, it is not like we conversed with them. it always is either to seal a demon, or kill it if it is weak enough.”

“Hm. then we have to do a lot of explaining.” the toad representative said in a croaky voice.

“Well, to start with, the demons you have dealt with so far, are not exactly the strongest of their kind. They came into the human world, either to amass power, or with some other purpose in mind, but ended up defeated and imprisoned by the humans.” The slug boss began to explain.

“Other thing which you should note is that you can’t create Jinchuriki out of these demons. They have the pure demonic energy called Yoki, which is fatal to humans. You were able to seal the tail beasts within the humans because they still had Chakra as their primary energy, but you would not be able to do the same thing with these demons.”

“Another question milady, how much do you know about the summons?” Katsuyu posed another question to the Hokage.

“Beyond what I have gathered from observing you? not much. Though I’ll say this that I have been lucky enough that I’ve got teammates who have the summons of their own, since many Shinobi actually prefer to keep the secret of their summons.” Tsunade also unlike Jiraiya and Orochimaru, never went to the land of her summons, despite having better relations with the slugs than either of them.

“Then we’ll use ourselves as a contrast to demons to explain you the situation clearly.” The toad representative said.

“Very well.” Tsunade leant back in her chair, expecting a long explanation.

“Summons are actually the animals who are mutated by the natural energy, something which can be used for entering into the sage mode. It is unknown how the evolution process took place, but most animals who are summons evolve that way, as well as getting more intelligent than their normal counterparts.” It seems that the responsibility of explaining everything is relegated to the slug boss alone. ‘Why did they even bothered to send their explanations then? I could have handled this on my own.’

“That natural energy, is the reason why we have certain places as our homes, like Mount Myoboku for toads, or the Shikotsu Forest for the slugs.” The snake representative, finally picking up the mood of the slug boss, speaks up.

“Since the natural energy is concentrated in these regions we prefer to live there, and protect our territory.” The toad added, feeling left out.

“Also, this is the reason why we do not share our location to outsiders, in some cases not with even our summoners.” The snake representative flares up in his chair.

“Even if a summoner has the location of our home, they are not allowed to tell anyone about it.” The toad added, trying to match the aggressive posture of the snake.

“This is why you do not know where toads live, even if the location is within the Land of Fire.” The slug boss said, ignoring the posturing entirely.

“I understand.” Tsunade nodded.

“Now, demons are the human souls who actually were strong enough that they did not lost their identity even in the death.” Tsunade finally lost her board expression. She is not used to receive lectures anymore, since it has been many years since she passed the academy.

“They have the time of hundred years to choose the option of rebirth, otherwise they end up in hell.” The snake said, moving his tail here and there to make the toad representative jump around in an effort to catch his tail.

“Now, the humans have certain myths about hell, but they actually are false. It is rather than being a place for punishment or torture, it’s more like a sophisticated world of its own.” The toad said from the top of the snake, managing to pull the reptile from his chair.

“Now, both the summons and demons have hierarchical ranks, just like the humans do. But since the demons are more battle oriented, they have the ranks according to their power, while summons have the ranks according to their personality and environment.” By this point, the slug boss didn’t trust either of the representatives to give a proper explanation, since a small-scale fight broke out between them in the office.

“In the summons, at the very bottom are the young and inexperienced, while their rank increases as their experience grows.”

“after that, there are those who are second to the boss and elders.” Katsuyu is drawing the ranks on a paper which Tsunade handed her.

“Then there are boss summonses, who actually handle the day-to-day responsibilities of running their clan, while also keeping them protected.” The toad sounded panicked, since the snake is chasing him around in anger.

“Then there are elders who are stronger than the boss summons. But they don’t interfere within the day-to-day operations.” The slug approved the focus of her summoner, she is completely paying attention to the explanation, rather than get distracted by the fight in her office.

“They also cannot leave their lands, since this increases the chances of someone attacking it. since they often are along with the boss, charged with its protection.” Added the snake, having caught the toad in his coils.

“While humans may not have much contact with demons, summons do. They are another reason why elders have to be so careful of leaving their land unprotected.” Katsuyu said, since both representatives were busy with fighting once more.

“Let us move on to the demons once more.” Katsuyu picked up the paper, getting a nod from the Hokage.

“Demons which you have dealt in the past are the lowest, or common ones. they often in an effort to make name for themselves, come to the human world.”

“Then there are greater demons, exactly like the second to the bosses and elders.” Once more, the slug is drawing a chart, marking the demon rankings with labels, and comparing them with the chart of summons which they made earlier.

“Then there are demons who control a particular domain.” Another part was added on the chart, with notes to accompany it.

“Such as the golden crow which you fought along with Uzomaki.” The toad, jumping down on the snake, helpfully provided an example.

“These are very strong, since they control territory of some kind, which requires a lot of strength to hold on within the demon world.”

“Then there are overlords.” The snake added, now having the toad representative in his mouth. He is considering the implications of biting or eating the damn toad.

“Are they just like the elders?” Tsunade asked.

“No. in truth, dew to their combative nature, demons often are much stronger than us. We’re older than that golden crow for example, but he already has more battle experience than us.” The slug answered.

“So, even a greater demon can actually be strong enough to take out bosses.” The toad and snake looked at each other grudgingly, and made it back to their chairs.

“Meanwhile, overlords… are on the league of their own.” All three of the summonses were unsettled by just mentioning the overlords.

“They have enough power to wipe out multiple clans of summons.” The toad said grimly.

“You think Naruto might be one?” the Hokage is concerned with such description.

“No. at least not for now. But given his age, he has a lot of potential, as well as chances of being one.” The snake said with an unhappy hiss.

“Aren’t any demons which we can make our allies?” the Hokage asked hopefully.

“Unfortunately, unless you have a strong human who could prove to them that you are worth their time, you won’t be able to get any of them to agree with you.” The slug said gently.

“Actually, we’re not explaining all of this for you to make your situation be hopeless.” The snake said, seeing the fallen expression of the Hokage.

“Then why?” Tsunade asked bitterly.

“Because, Uzomaki until he becomes an overlord, will have trouble from other strong demons.” The toad said.

“Also, there are only two overlords alive in this day and age, and both of them are sealed within their castles.” Katsuyu said in an assuring tone.

“How did they were sealed?” she asked curiously.

“The first one, is not exactly sealed. He simply has not come out of his castle for two thousand years.” The snake said, remembering the White Snake Sage telling the horror stories of that one.

“The other one, we do not know. Even the demons are terrified of him, and they put strong containment seals around his castle.” All three of them looked at each other. They clearly don’t have much faith in those seals, especially considering the legends of that one.

“We suggest that you focus on the human side of this war, while we’ll take care of Uzomaki.” The snake representative suggested.

“He sooner or later has to step in the demon world. While we do not have the influence with the demons there, they won’t mind if we assaulted him there.” The toad sounded confident.

“But we need to train someone in the sage arts, because you need someone who can at least distract a demon in combat even if it is for few minutes.” The slug finally tells the real reason of this meeting.

Raising an eyebrow, Tsunade asked, “Do you have someone in mind whom you would like to teach?”

“Yes. Shikamaru Nara.” The toad immediately spoke, since they have decided his name before coming here.

“Why him?” Tsunade didn’t was thrown for a loop. True that he has a great mind for strategies, but beyond that, he doesn’t seem to display any proficiency in combat.

“Because we need someone who thinks that they have a purpose, to defeat Uzomaki. That boy is exactly like that.” the snake explained.

“Hm. why not Sasuke?” she asked out of curiosity.

“We would have chosen him, but he is very stubborn. He won’t be able to bring balance within himself for the use of the sage arts.” The snake sounded miffed. That Uchiha sounds to be a promising student.

“Okay. who is going to train him?” she asked the most important question, looking at all three of them.

At that question, the fireworks broke out within the meeting room, as each summon puts their own arguments of why they should train Shikamaru. While the snake and toad representatives argued heatedly, Katsuyu just interjected here and there. Just like Tsunade, she was content to observe the heated debate between the toad and snake.

“What do you mean that snakes are unsuitable?” the snake representative flares in his chair once more.

“Your methods of training are dangerous!” the toad croaked, “You’ll kill the boy before he would be any use of us!” the toad jumped in his chair.

“And your methods are so safe?” the snake mocked, “He would be equally useless as a stone statue!”

“Maybe we should try my clan’s method?” Katsuyu suggested, “It is much safer than any of yours.” She added the last part with clear smugness.

The toad turned to them. “Yeah right. I doubt that you could train a human. When was the last time you trained a human in your methods of the sage arts? I bet you don’t even remember how to train a human.”

“Well, at least I’M not the one arguing like children.” Having fed up with their barbs, they finally retaliated.

That actually shuts up both of the representatives. Meanwhile, Tsunade was drinking from the bottle of sake she managed to sneak into this meeting without the knowledge of Shizune, that argument has given her a headache.

“Lady Tsunade,” the snake representative spoke again, “There is another reason why the snakes want to train that boy.”

“Oh? Do tell.” At this point, the Hokage is expecting just another idiotic reason.

“You see, our elder observed his temperament when he was summoned in the battle. He later said that he is actually suitable for being a snake summoner, since his way of thinking through everything with logic, and strategies are very much aligned with the snakes.”

Tsunade nodded. The representative continued. “That is why we think that he will also learn our method of the sage arts much more quickly.”

Despite the nasty argument few moments ago, the toad representative was not denying the words of the snake representative. As such, the ball was in the Tsunade’s court, she has to decide whether she should send Shikamaru to train with snakes, toads, or slugs.

Honestly, she would have preferred if she did not have to choose something like that. learning sage arts is risky, and he could die.

‘But we need someone who does know the sage arts now that Jiraiya is dead.’ She thinks.

Fortifying her heart, Tsunade nodded decisively. “I have decided that Shikamaru Nara will go with snakes, for training of the sage arts. Please try to bring him back in one piece.” She muttered the last part.

“We will.” The snake said. ‘Well, if he did fails, the body at least would be in one piece.’

* * *

(Flashback end.)

This, of course is the reason why Shikamaru has been absent for a while now. Tsunade thought that his strategies could have been useful during the summit.

An ANBU entered from the window, and knelt in front of Tsunade. “Lady Hokage, Shikamaru Nara has returned from his training.”

‘Well, this is the only good news I have gotten in a while.’ She thinks, without giving away her thoughts.

“Very well, is he exhausted?” she asks the still kneeling ANBU.

“No mam, he appears to be rested.” He answered promptly.

“Good. Tell him that he should come and report to me in half an hour.” She ordered.

“At once, lady Hokage.” with a salute, the ANBU left through the same window to accomplish his task.

* * *

(45 minutes later, Hokage’s office.)

Shikamaru has gone through many changes in this past year. For one, he lost his beloved teacher, then he also lost his father… both were killed by the same person, a person whom at one point he called a friend.

There losses affected him greatly. Instead of being an example of typical Nara clan member, (Extremely intelligent, yet incredibly lazy,) he has turned into a cold and calculative person, with only one purpose in life.

To kill Naruto Uzomaki.

This, of course is evident from the fact that he would have never thought that he would have a summoning contract in the future, not many Shinobi have those.

But not only he has the summoning contract, but he holds the summoning contract of snakes, one of the most disreputable summonses in Leaf, though this reputation is well deserved, even after knowing who holds the summoning contract of them.

Shikamaru, would have never signed this contract, specially dew to the reputation of Orochimaru. But when he was offered the contract after experiencing those losses, he accepted the contract without a fuss.

He was also expecting the call of Hokage as soon as he returned, she would no doubt want to know how his training went, as well as the moves of other summoning clans.

Thus, he was sitting in front of Hokage, answering her questions, while the effects of the harsh training of the snakes barely shown on him.

“So, I hope you’re training went well?” Tsunade asked as a starter for the conversation.

“Indeed. The snakes were surprised how quickly I achieved the sage mode.”

“Good. Good. Any other changes?” she nodded and asked.

“Not many, though of course I still have the limitation of gathering the nature Chakra. Otherwise, the sage mode would be useless, since I wouldn’t be able to access it.” Tsunade noted how he is sounding like Danzo more she talks to him.

“I expect that you have some counter measures for this problem?”

“Yes. Though if you don’t mind, I would like to keep them a secret.” He said shrewdly.

“No, I do not. Though I do expect you to at least tell the Shinobi whom you will be on missions if you do need their assistance.” She said with a firm tone.

“Of course.” He gave an easy nod.

“Now, what do the other summoning clans are doing against Naruto?” she asks the important question.

Despite expecting this question, Shikamaru leant back in his chair with an unhappy expression on his face.

“Aside from the dogs, toads, and slugs, we shouldn’t expect much from the other clans yet.” His answer is most unwelcome, would be putting it mildly.

“Why?”

“There reasoning is that they don’t want the attention of a demon, especially since he has yet to step into the demon world. but considering that he killed the elder of the toad clan, they would definitely do something if he steps in to the demon world.”

“Until then?” Tsunade already knows the answer of this question at the back of her head. Still, she asked for completion’s sake.

“As I’ve said, don’t expect much from them.” The Nara himself is not sounding happy with the stance of the other summon clans.

Tsunade just sighed. She might be the Kage of her village, as well as an S ranked Shinobi who could shatter mountains from just one punch. But she couldn’t exactly force others to move against Naruto.

“Though,” Shikamaru said, a gleam appearing on his eyes, “Sooner or later he’ll step into the demon world. So, they would get involved, whether they want it or not. My suggestion is that until that happens, we should focus curtailing Naruto’s moves in the human world.”

* * *

(In the Land of Iron.)

“Lord Mifune,” the samurai knelt before the general, “The scouts have returned from the sight of the battle, here’s their report.”

Mifune took the report, already knowing what the scouts have to report won’t be pretty.

He was proven right. Entire forest sight has been devastated, some of the areas were still flooded, and craters and scorched marks were everywhere.

It is a small mercy that the damage was not caused by a tail beast. In that case, the entire area would have been dangerous for many years. Still, this just proves him correct, he can take the decision which he was about to take anyway, with more clarity.

“Here are the orders.” The Samurai straitened in attention. “As of this moment, the Land of Iron is in complete lockdown. No one is to enter in the country, and no one is allowed to go out. Aside from the few towns located at the very edge of the Land of Iron, merchants are not allowed to enter deeper within the country. Breaking these laws will result in the punishment of death.”

The samurai left after a salute to execute his orders.

‘Let those damn Shinobi fight this war.’

* * *

(With Sasuke, in the Uchiha district.)

If the nature reflected the mood of the one Sasuke Uchiha, then the sky would have been covered with the crackling thunder cloud, while the rain pounded outside.

But even the nature is mocking him. Even a little overcast weather would have been welcome, instead what he has is the blinding sun glairing outside.

Of course, the reason of such anger was once again, Naruto Uzomaki, a friend whom he considered to kill for power, and then spared in some misguided attempt of trying to defy his brother.

Given what he knew of his life, he realized that Naruto lashing out at the world was fine in his opinion. But when he took away his chance of killing Itachi, he crossed a line. When he humiliated him during his trial, he crossed another.

But this time? He simply did not cross the line, as much as trampled the line and destroyed its remnants. For this time, Sasuke was beaten by not Naruto, but by someone who was his underling.

Remembering that loss, Sasuke punched the nearby wooden wall in frustration. But it did not quell his anger even a little.

“Foolish little brother,” a hauntingly familiar voice said behind Sasuke.

Turning around, Sasuke yelled, “Shut up! you’re dead, cut down by Naruto, I saw that with my own eyes!”

“True. but what you fail to see, is that Naruto has been right about you all along.”

“Shut up! your words mean nothing!” the last Uchiha declared with as much conviction as he could muster.

“Always were the puppet of others, at first mother and father, then the village, then Orochimaru.” Itachi said with disgust in his voice, “No Uchiha would sully their honor by involving themselves by that snake.”

“Honor? You don’t get to talk about honor. You killed our parents in this very house, remember?” Sasuke’s voice shook from the emotions of that day.

“I did my duty, nothing more.”

“Ha! What a duty that was. Tell me, was it ordered by the Hokage that you should kill the children? was it ordered by the Hokage that you should torture me?” Sasuke asked with a sneer.

“It always comes back to you, doesn’t it? let me tell you something.”

“What?” Sasuke leans forward, as if Itachi is truly present within the haunted house.

“Do you know why father started to pay attention to you?” the apparition asked.

“Because unlike you, I wasn’t a traitor of the clan?” Sasuke asked in return.

“Hmhmhmhm. Sometimes, I wonder whether it was a good idea to leave you alive or not. Clan this, clan that, where did that clan go?” Itachi asked with an unhinged snarl.

The apparition spreads its arms. “They all died, and left this empty district. The only reason why it has been not reclaimed by the village, is because of Naruto, and the current Hokage’s favoring him at that time.”

“Get to the point.” Sasuke examined his nails, rather than listen to this apparition which just won’t disappear.

“The point is, you were nothing but a replacement.”

“You’re lying!” the apparition finally managed to wound him deeply with its words.

“Am I? then tell me why did father never paid you any attention until he was sure that I won’t follow his orders? Why didn’t he taught you until he was sure that I will side with the village when it came to rebellion?”

Sasuke… despite wanting to protest, despite trying to say that his father would never do that to him, still remained silent, and no words came out of his mouth.

It was as if his tongue refused to move.

“See? You can’t even deny it. in truth, the only reason why you were even born was because someone in our family could use the spare Sharingan.” The apparition of Itachi said with an expression of pity on his face.

“Shut up!” with a roar, Sasuke lunged at the filthy, lying, dead apparition, but he passed through it and collided with a wall of his childhood room, and passed out.

* * *

(Few hours later…)

With a groan, Sasuke woke up. by this time, the sun has already sunk, and it was the time of evening.

But Sasuke is not feeling so resentful of the weather anymore. He didn’t know whether it was the impact to the head, or the words of that damn apparition, but he is now feeling lighter, as if a weight attached to him has been suddenly removed.

“Pathetic trifling apparition. I’ll show you what this puppet could do.” Chuckling to himself, Sasuke continued to speak out loud…

“First, I’ll destroy that demon. Then, I’ll make this world cry so badly, that the terror of Naruto would be forgotten by everyone. Instead, they would remember me, the Sasuke Uchiha, who made the world cry.”

“And of course, I will experience every pleasure this world has to offer. And whoever gets in my way, will die.” He declared with finality.

* * *

(At Sakura’s house.)

A knock sounded in Sakura’s house, and she went to open the door. If it is Ino thinking that she would cheer her up after latest events in her life, she’ll refuse of course.

at least she is still someone she could call a friend, no need to alienate her as well.

But when she opened the door, it was not Ino who was standing at her door.

“Sakura, I hear that there is a nice place in Tanzaku town.” Sasuke said smoothly, “Would you like to come with me?”  
Sasuke was on her door asking her out, (Making her dream come true,) while she got ready in ten minutes, and is now leaving the Leaf village…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing that small brawl during the explanation between the toad and snake.
> 
> *Looks at the views from the last chapter* Good. I am getting at least ten views per chapter. Now, how those youtubers do it? Oh yeah!
> 
> Please leave a kudos, subscribe, leave a comment, share the work, like my non-existing social media, *Insert a long list of social media accounts here*
> 
> The reader: "The demands of this damned author just never ends!" *Presses control + w*
> 
> Me: wait, I forgot, you didn't bought my shitty merchandise!


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25.

(With Naruto.)

Naruto, feeling that he has enough time on his hands, decides to train himself in solitude, leaving Raikage and Mizukage in charge of the operations against the Leaf and future freedom.

Now, he is taking advantage of the experience and the knowledge of his sword, which should make him strong enough that the situation with the Hokages never arises. That wooden cage still haunts him in his nightmares.

Right now, he is on one of the forests of the Land of Forest, as much solitude as you can get for training.

Naruto is already strong with both water and fire elements. As such, he decided that he should train with the elements with which he needs the most improvements.

This started with Yamato’s instructions to get a feel for the dark element, in which light disappears, and not reflected back, as a result nothing can be observed… Yamato really loves his metaphors.

For this, he meditated for many nights, completely hidden within the thick foliage of the forest, so not even the light of moon would reach him.

But considering his demon nature, he got it soon enough. This also caused him to chuckle in amusement.

“Those Nara bastards just don’t know what they are playing with.”

Naturally, Yamato taught him some techniques related with the dark element, some of them were so vicious that Naruto resolved that he won’t use them lightly on anyone. No need to cause unnecessary pain, if you can finish your opponent’s painlessly, after all.

After that, he moved on to the earth element. Yamato harked on him about not mastering this element, or have at least some basic grounding on it, since it is so useful for sneaking around, and causing massive property damage, with relatively low energy cost.

After destroying the forest where he practiced this element, as well as stopping a landslide near a village from a mountain, (And getting thanked by the people, strangely enough,) Naruto moved on to telekinesis.

This, admittedly, was a new experience for Naruto. for despite living in the village where one of the clans can walk into your minds, Naruto didn’t know whether he would be able to do it or not.

Turns out, he could do it, and this opened an entirely new way of attacking for him in a battle.

This was more evident when he began to practice his daily sword fight routine, (it won’t do him any good to hold the most powerful demon blade, if his skills got rusty, now would it?) apparently all that mind training allowed him greater awareness of his sword, not to mention he got to try some of the psychic cutting attacks through Yamato… all the while promising to plant new trees as he cut down many of them for his practice…

(He did planted new trees, but most of them were thorny kind, not exactly what anyone would have in their mind when they would plant new trees.)

Now, Yamato told him to come in this strange and buzzing forest, where his lightning training is about to begin.

“So, for now, you only know how to use Thunder Punch. But while it is a great attack, this is not the only thing which the lightning has to offer you.” Yamato lectures.

Sending an image to his mind, Yamato explains. “This is zap cannon. This can paralyze people if used with low power, but it can kill if you overpower it.”

“Okay, I get that. what’s next?” the demon nodded at the explanations. ‘If only late Iruka Sensei can see me now, paying attention in class…’ he sheds a tear in the memory of the wonderful teacher.

“Nothing. just grab a rock, and throw it into the trees, where the buzzing noise is the loudest.” The sword provided the instructions.

“Okay…” Naruto considers these instructions to be weird. But he still follows them, not giving importance to the chill on his spine.

“And you’re not allowed to see that tree directly.” the demon blade added quickly.

“Why?” Naruto asked suspiciously.

“Just follow the damn instructions!” Yamato roared.

“Okay, okay, no need to be so grumpy.” The demon muttered.

Cursing about the spoiled swords with their stupid and vague instructions, Naruto picked up a small stone at the size of his fist, and threw it to the tree where the buzzing noise was the loudest, all the while facing in the opposite direction, as Yamato instructed.

“Let’s see whether I’ll take you to that blacksmith with nice girls as apprentice next time…” Naruto grumbled, “What now?” he asked in a louder voice.

“Now, you run.” Yamato may not have face to grin, but Naruto knows that the bastard is definitely grinning right now.

“What?” he asked in confusion, getting shivers from the sudden glee of the sword.

“Turn around.” Yamato said helpfully.

Doing as Yamato said, Naruto saw in horror a pissed off army of bees coming his way, all the while the other armies of bees in the neighborhood joined the already big army.

“What the hell Yamato?” if anyone says in the future that his voice cracked, they are most certainly lying, and will be dealt in the ruthless demon manner.

“I suggest you run.” Yamato doesn’t sounds bothered, even a little.

Naruto of course, did as his sword suggested, and took off in such a speed that it would have made the late Gai Sensei proud, (Even though he is unyouthful.)

“Damn you Yamato, you are going into a pink scabbard for this!” the demon declared.

A panicking Yamato explains, “Look, there is a method to this madness. You just need to use Zap Cannon on them, Okay?”

“Fine!” Naruto extends his right hand, and with the crackle fires a massive bolt at the coming bees.

It hit with a thunderous bang, and the bees who were caught in the blast fell to the ground.

“Are they dead?” Naruto asked, seeing the bees on the ground are unmoving.

“No. they’re just stunned.” Yamato said, not seeing it as important as the army of bees, which is still coming their way.

“Dammit! Didn’t I put enough power in it?” the demon cursed.

“Yes. That is why you’re training though, aren’t you?” the demon blade didn’t understand the frustration of his wielder.

“Dammit Yamato!” Naruto roared, making the birds fly away in fear for several miles, (Or was it because of the angry bees, find out in the next exciting episode of--!)

* * *

(The Land of Forest, three days later…)

“Phew. Finally got the control.” Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, while falling down on a bed of leaves.

“Yeah, and to think you were only stung for few hundred times!” Yamato said, very impressed.

“Shut up, Yamato! Do you realize what I have to imagine to forget the pain?” the demon however, doesn’t considers the words of Yamato as a compliment.

“Well…” the blade is really not interested to find out something like that.

“Unfortunately, this part of the world is so undeveloped that I didn’t have access to internet while growing up. Do you realize how hard it is to get good material for that?” Naruto rambled on.

“Erm. What’s this internet you speak of?” last time Yamato knew, there was no such thing in his time, aside from various weapons to kill someone horrifically. And even among them, not one of them was named “Internet.”

Naruto just sighed.

“Let’s just go into the town and do something else other than training.” The demon was this close to beg his sword for a rest.

(But you didn’t imply any distance! That’s how close he was.)

“No arguments from me!” Yamato, thankfully agreed wholeheartedly.

As the hero, who is just a nominal hero, let’s not kid ourselves, the incredibly hansom Narrator celebrates for he got away from torturing his main character without suffering anything so weak or feeble as karma… what’s that buzzing noise?

Oh god don’t sting me oh Dennis Richie why?

* * *

(With the Kages…)

Mizukage and Raikage were gathered on a hotel, along with Lydia to receive and react on the offer of several countries to join them. This has slowly become a great way of passing time for them.

As a side note, Raikage openly disapproves of such meetings, since they do add unnecessary strain to the budget. But secretly likes them because he saw and remembers the scenes in the books, or the novels, as the other side calls them, in which the people often met in high places or hotels to plan the destruction of their enemies… illegally imported by his father of course.

While they do not need the armies of these countries, their support is important in insuring that their own army can travel unimpeded, as well as their capability of supplying them.

The Land of Springs, Land of Birds, Land of Honey, Land of flowers did join their alliance, while Land of Tea, and Rice provided their implicit support since they didn’t want to be seen supporting any one side, some of them refused, quite strongly at that.

Among the noticeable ones in the list of countries which refused the offer were the Land of Moon, and Wave. While Moon used a diplomatic approach in their refusal, (While Raikage knew that their claims of neutralities were bullshit, since they would join the side of Leaf,) Wave… simply did not.

“What the hell?” Mizukage asked while reading the response of the Land of Waves, “Who do they think they are, to use the tone like that for us?”

Especially since they actually requested for the second time, when they refused the first time. Raikage still remembers reading that response with Naruto.

“Give me that.” Lydia said, while snatching the letter from Mizukage, “Oh boy.”

The letter said the following:

We as the proud members of the Land of Wave, will not be intimidated by the power of weapons. If you think that we’ll side with you just because you have more power in your hands, then you’re wrong! We will fight until the last stand, and the belief and faith in our capability will crush you!

“We would have destroyed the entire territory for the insult like that.” said Lydia, while throwing the letter aside.

“Mmm!” Raikage thinks to himself.

“I know that tone. What are you thinking?” Mizukage asked him.

“Well, Lydia is not wrong. While we don’t need their armies, we’re asking their support to make sure that we can move freely, supply ourselves, and of course, to minimize the trouble while we wage war on Leaf.” Raikage explains, “But if we let such a response stand, then these lands who have allied with us would think of us as the weaklings and pushovers. It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to double cross us in the future. Thus, I think that the response of Lydia… is logical.”

“You sure?” the Sylph asked, “I mean what if this Land of Wave contained some important thing or too?”

“It doesn’t.” Mizukage assured her, “It is just a small island which is nothing more than a trading port, and not even that useful one.”

“Then…” the Sylph looked at both of them.

“Yep, destroy it.” Raikage repeated what he said earlier. ‘Especially since Naruto’s sentimental reasons are no longer justified.’

“And how are we going to do it? we don’t have the ‘City destroyer’ with us right now.” Lydia asked.

“Well, we don’t need Naruto for that, frankly, that’s overkill.” Mizukage said.

“Then who?” the Sylph didn’t consider the humans to be any special, so dismisses them outright.

“You, of course!” Mizukage said with a sharp smile.

“What?” Lydia didn’t expect to be put on the spot like that.

“Yes. And Yugito would accompany you during this mission.” The large and in charge added.

“Why her?” Mizukage asked.

“Because normal Jonin missions are not good enough for her, especially since she is capable of doing much more than that. she only needs to realize it, and someone to guide her.” Raikage explained.

“And you want me to be that guide?” the sylph is rather flattered. It is not every day you get to take a student on a territory annihilating mission.

“Well, yes. I would have asked Naruto, but he’s too busy these days.” Raikage said grudgingly.

“Well, this should be interesting. Let’s see how the humans defend their territory.” The Sylph chuckled.

In the burst of wind, Lydia disappeared, leaving two Kages alone.

“She’s going to be disappointed.” Mizukage said knowingly.

“Well, of course she will be. I mean if we would have sent her in a Shinobi village, things might be different, but Wave?” they both shook their heads.

* * *

(With Lydia and Yugito.)

In a burst of air, Lydia teleported along with Yugito within the forests of Land of Wave, while Lydia pocketed the seal which allowed them to do that for later use.

‘Good thing that I told him to modify them to use air.’ The Sylph thinks, after observing the ruffled leaves on the forest because of their entrance.

“So, why are we here?” the other woman presents there asked to the Sylph.

“Simple really. We need to purge this island.” She said flippantly.

“And I am here because…” the container still didn’t understand, leaving the question half finished.

“Because your boss thinks that you need experience with such operations, yes.” Lydia finished for her.

Yugito sighed. “So, how are we going to do this?”

“First of all, we’ll travel to the town, and kill everyone who gets in our way. Then I’ll tell you the rest of it afterwards.” Lydia said. After all, once you get down to it, there is not much difference when you destroy a territory of weaklings.

Now if there were some strong humans or demons here, then the matter would be different. More cunning and subterfuge would be required, and that large man probably would have sent her here alone, or waited for Naruto’s return.

“We’re walking on foot?” Yugito asked, as they began to approach the only human settlement in the island.

“Yes, why do you ask?” Lydia wanted to take a look of this island before it becomes a flaming wreckage.

“Well, I don’t know, maybe we could have teleported write in the middle of them, and take advantage of the panic?” Yugito suggested a cunning and sensible plan.

“Come on girl, where’s your sense of adventure?” the demoness however, is not in the favor of such sensible plans.

The Jinchuriki just shook her head at the reply of the Sylph.

* * *

(With Kiba and Shino, with the militia.)

While Leaf does not expect an attack on such a place like Wave, they still sent a squad of Chunin, to organize the militia here as a gesture of good faith. After all, they did choose to side with them, didn’t they?

Although why exactly they are siding with Leaf, Kiba doesn’t like to think about that.

They were just done explaining to the militia their general strategy they should use during the attack, (Mainly consisting of guerilla tactics from the forests,) that suddenly one of the men came back running screaming at the top of his lungs.

“They’re killing everyone!”

“Whose killing who?” Kiba asked.

“There were… cat monsters, air manipulation…” the man said while struggling to breathe.

“Take a breath, and then tell us clearly.” Shino suggested in his calm tone, which calmed down the man.

“There are two women who are killing anyone who gets in their way, and they’re coming towards the town!” the man reported.

“Well then. Looks like we have a situation in our hands.” Kiba stated.

“You do.” A voice said.

“Who?” the Chunin suddenly started to look every which way.

“Well,” Lydia said walking in the line of sight of Kiba, “I expected something… more.”

“You know what this is, an example.” Yugito repeated for the hundredth time.

“I know, but still!” the demoness was feeling disappointed.

“Halt! You’re not allowed to get further than this. Everyone, try to take at least one of them alive!” Kiba gave his orders.

All the Chunin followed his orders, and surrounded both the Jinchuriki and the Sylph, while Kiba missed Akamaru. With his death, his strength has been cut in half, not to mention the emotional tole it took on him.

Although the Chunin followed Kiba’s orders, they were no match for a Sylph, and a Jinchuriki. Thus, began the slaughter of his forces.

Seeing this, he called Shino close to him. “Listen, you need to escape.”

“You must be mad,” Shino looked at him with disbelief.

“No. You must leave. There’s someone who has to inform others.” Kiba persisted.

Seeing the stubborn look on his friend’s face, Shino perhaps for the first time in his life, let some cracks show on his emotionless mask, and nodded.

To cover his escape, Kiba draws the attention of the females to himself. “Hay bitches, over here. Or are you too afraid to take on a real man?” Kiba said, voice dripping with confidence.

“Oh, he’s so dead!” Lydia lost her temper.

Yugito just sighed. She might be a demon, but Lydia doesn’t know how to keep a tight control on her emotions. Shuttering a little, she thinks to herself, ‘Let’s just hope I don’t become that insane Danzo.’

Indeed, the Jonin who survived the second and third war speak of him in a hushed whisper, while the ANBU forces of all four of the Hidden Villages speak of him in a grudging respect, as well as a blazing hatred.

Pierced by the wind knives of the Lydia, Kiba met his end, thinking of Akamaru in his last moments. Another one of the students who graduated with Naruto from academy died.

“Okay, we’re in the town. Now what?” Yugito questioned.

“You need to blow up the village, of course.” Lydia said, back to her unflappable mood.

Before Yugito could open her mouth and say anything else, Tazuna arrives with the citizen of the Wave. “You will leave our land this instance!” the old man declared.

“Oh yeah?” Lydia asked, “And what exactly are you going to do if I don’t? try to kill us with the pitch forks?” she laughed in amusement.

Turning to Yugito, Lydia ignores whatever Tazuna is going on about, and tells Yugito, “Just blow up everything. I’ll handle them.”

“They’re just civilians.” Yugito said in a board tone. She didn’t see what exactly the demoness could do to handle them.

“Exactly.”

“Fine.” Yugito began to transform into her two tails form, as Medatabi supplied her with her demonic Chakra.

Preparing the tail beast ball, Yugito fired it, while Lydia danced around the civilians trying to get to her.

With a large explosion, the town of Wave disappeared, while the crowd of civilians was burned to ashes…

“Could you deal with that bridge?” the sylph pointed at the structure in question.

“Sure.” Yugito growled, “See this.” The Kanji for fire appeared, and then she released the flames in the shape of mouses towards the bridge, all the while Lydia gawked at this human girl using Fire Blast of all things…

Though by the time they reached the bridge, Yugito lost the control over those blasts, and burned down the forests of the island, along with collapsing the bridge, which Shino was unable to cross before its demise. Consequently, the bridge took him with itself.

Transforming back to the human form, Yugito saw the burning forests with a sheepish smile. “Oops?”

“Let’s just leave.” Lydia grumbled, and teleported both of them from the island.

* * *

(Back with Naruto, in the Land of Honey.)

Teleporting into the Land of Honey according to the instructions of Yamato, Naruto asked why exactly is he here.

“Well, this is your final test. If you can pass this one, then you’re lightning element would be ready to be used in a battle.”

“Okay, what’s this test?” the demon asked, already preparing himself for something dangerous.

“Simple. Just pick up a stone from the ground, and—” the sword tried to instruct.

“Yeah, do you honestly think that I am dumb enough to fall for that again?” Naruto said, “Just pick up a stone from the ground,” he picks up a stone from the ground, “And throw it into the trees?”

Three seconds later as the stone collided with a ‘tak!’ sound to one of the trees, Naruto lowers his hand in shock.

“How the hell?” he looked at his hand in wonder.

“Hay, you did it yourself, not me. Now, just be ready.” Yamato may not have a face, but Naruto knows that the bastard is smiling.

as the demon starts to hear the increasingly closer buzzing sound coming towards him, Naruto charged the Zap Cannon in his hands, and cursed at Yamato.

“Dammit Yamatoooooooo!”

With a roar, Naruto took off, an army of bees from a different area after him, ready to avenge their damaged nest.

Firing the Zap Cannon nonstop, Naruto hollered at the bees, “Come on, it’s not like that stone did more than just scratch your nest? What are you so getting mad for?”

After six hours of nonstop running, firing, and bees receiving reinforcements, they finally ran out of the numbers, and the bees which were still not stunned or fried in the entire incident decided to cut their losses, after buzzing at Naruto threateningly one more time.

“Yamato?” said an exhausted demon who refuses to lean on a tree, lest the bees get back and sting him to death.

“Yeah?”

“You suck as a trainer.” Naruto said with as much hate as he could muster.

“Thank you, man.” Yamato accepted the compliment.

Teleporting to his relaxing luxurious hideout, Naruto stumbled towards the shower, muttering all the way.

“I’m going to take a shower, take a loooong nap, and forget this entire training like a bad, bad, bad, and sting filled nightmare.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You remember how I said that I am getting ten visiters per chapter?
> 
> Yeah, about that. It appears I spoke too soon.
> 
> sigh.
> 
> Yes, I have been mangling the spelling of Thunder Punch until now. I won't do it again, but I am not fixing the previous mistakes, not at least for now.
> 
> May you have the peaceful sleep, because I seriously am in need of one.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26.

Arrival in Hell.

(With Shikamaru.)

Shikamaru was playing a game of Shogi with himself, this is another one of the rounds he has played against himself today, he has however, forgotten the number of rounds by this point.

This of course, is because everyone who would have been his opponents at one point, are now all dead, and outside of his father and Asuma, no one else seems interested.

Not that he himself is looking for some company. The training of the snakes was brutal, and they have turned his mind into a sharp and a finely honed weapon, free from the distractions, and have only one purpose. To execute his revenge.

Taking another piece, Shikamaru traps the opposing general at the corner of the board. ‘and I’ll start with something which you hold so dear…’

Speaking of snakes, one did appears in a puff of smoke, unlike the extremely large ones deployed within a big assault, or the small venomous ones which are used by the summoners to attack their enemies, this snake is at the size of a common python.

Coiling himself at the room of Shikamaru, the snake hissed a message. “Summoner, I have brought you some news of success.” Rolling his eyes at the antics of the summon, Shikamaru nodded for him to continue.

“The other summoning clans are convinced to keep an eye out for the Uzomaki in the demon world, if he appears there, then they will take action, and send a force to stop him, with all their demon slaying resources.”

Shikamaru dismissed the snake in another puff of smoke, and left to tell Tsunade about this news.

* * *

(With Naruto, Hidden Cloud.)

Returning from his solitary training, much more dangerous, much more powerful, and much more wilder looking, (At least he thinks, while in reality he looks the same as before,) Naruto greeted the two Kages, along with Lydia.

“Sooooo! What did my favorite shadows do in my absence?” the demon asked cheerfully.

“A lot, actually.” Raikage said nonchalantly, “You see, we’re not as unproductive as some other people.”

“I—” the demon tried to defend himself.

“Indeed. The nerve of some people.” Mizukage said in a grave tone.

“You… all suck. You know that?” the demon replied.

“Well, I don’t know about these two,” Raikage said referring to Lydia and Mei, “But I certainly don’t recall doing any such thing.”

“Not that someone would let you anyway.” Naruto added.

“What did you say brat?” A said furiously.

“Exactly what you heard, you old man!” Naruto retorted with full of fire.

Watching both males behaving like this, Lydia asked to the Mizukage, “Does this happen frequently?”

“No, only when the testosterone is at a breaking limit.” Mizukage said in a disinterested tone.

Ten minutes later, all of them received food within the office of Raikage, while discussing the next step of the plan, while informing Naruto of what has already happened in his absence.

“Wait, you mean to say that entire island is burned down?” the demon said with surprise.

“Yes. Though according to the report, there was a small patch of forest which survived.” Raikage said.

“I can personally confirm though,” Lydia spoke then, “There weren’t any humans hidden in that forest.”

“Okay, good. Kind of feel bad that the country which I saved once in a mission went out like this, but what can you do?”

“Apparently, you do a very fine job of inspiring people.” Raikage said sarcastically.

“Yeah,” Naruto’s mood darkened a little, “A fine job indeed.”

Snapping back from that, Naruto explains what they should do next. “I think we should attack the Land of Moon.”

“Why?” they all asked.

“They have massive amounts of financial resources, they would be very useful, I’m sure you can imagine.” The demon gave his reasons.

“Yeah, we can.” Mei answered for all of them.

“Meanwhile,” Naruto continued, “Lydia and I will go to the demon world, it is high time I accelerated my operations there.”

“I was waiting for this. You shouldn’t delay for much longer; you might find that some people do not appreciate that there is an active overlord among us.” The Sylph said seriously.

“Well then, what are we waiting for? These two seems to have everything in under control,” Both Kages nodded, “We should leave.”

“About that, we can’t exactly leave without your sword. Where is he anyway? I haven’t heard him for a while.” Not that Lydia wanted to hear Yamato, he seems to have gotten in his head that she likes him or something.

“Oh nothing, he was whining and complaining about how I don’t take care of him, don’t appreciate him for what a fine sword he is, so I decided to dump him at a weapon servicing store.”

“And this store would happen to be…” Raikage trailed off, very familiar with the habits of Yamato by this point.

“run by a pair of beautiful ladies, yes.” The demon confirmed.

“Figures.” He grumbled, not at all jealous.

“Let’s retrieve him, and leave.” turning to the Kages, Naruto said, “If you do have some trouble, then you must wait for me, since you don’t exactly have the way to contact me in the demon world.”

“Very well.” Raikage said with a serious nod.

He was not easy with such a decision, ideally someone as powerful as Naruto should remain within their forces. But alas, you can never have an ideal situation.

As Naruto was leaving with Lydia to retrieve Yamato, the Kages heard him mutter about hunting some people…

(With Neji, an ANBU training ground, Leaf.)

Neji is relaxing within a shade of a large tree, while thinking himself to be lucky that he doesn’t have to spend more time within the hell called Hyuga compound, especially given his high rank.

‘I bet that annoys the hell out of that bitch.’ Were the less than charitable thoughts about the head of his clan.

Meanwhile the rhythmic sounds of a training post being hit with the limbs repeatedly came to his ears from some distance, where Hanabi is training and refining her forms after the training of which he provided her.

He would agree that both sisters have a sharp mind, but whereas one excelled in the traditional way, the other one didn’t, and as a consequence, Naruto and him have to deal with an unpredictable and quite a broken girl.

Not that Neji was providing Hanabi with the traditional training. He was sure that the elders would have thrown a massive fit if they would have known what kinds of techniques, he was teaching to a main branch girl, and the daughter of a former clan head no less!

Not that he cared for what they think, and since Naruto has taken interest in her, it is paramount that Neji teaches her every technique or trick to survive within the brutal world in which both himself and the demon reside.

The peace was interrupted by a peacock of all things flying at them, a letter tide to its leg. Considering peacocks aren’t found anywhere near around them, this definitely would have drawn a lot of attention.

Sighing at the narcissism of some people, Neji got up from his comfortable position, and walked up to the vain bird to take the letter from it.

Hanabi, curious to know what’s the deal with that strange bird and the letter, walked up to him. “So, who sent you that letter?” Hanabi asked brimming with curiosity.

Neji didn’t answer.

“I hope it’s not a girl.” She tried to get a reaction out of him.

Neji didn’t answer.

“Cause if it is a girl, she is quite vain.” She is getting frustrated with his non-reaction.

Neji still didn’t answer.

“Stop ignoring me!” she exploded.

“Wuh? Oh. I forgot about you.” Neji finally answered.

“Yeah, considering the fantasies about that girl who sent you that letter—” Hanabi observed the shivering of Neji, “What’s up?”

“Nothing. It’s not a girl who sent me that letter.” The Jonin said.

“Then…” Hanabi raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“Can’t really explain. I think you should return to the compound—know! Bad idea. Just stay here, then tell them you came here by mistake—you know what? Just come with me. it’ll be a lot safer.” He just rambled.

“O…kay?” Hanabi has rarely seen Neji so scattered minded.

Usually, he is so unflappable a collected, she really wants to meet this person who brought such a reaction from him with just a letter.

After sneaking threw the streets of Leaf, and traversing some underground passages, they arrived on a lab, where a young man with the silver hair and with glasses is apparently waiting for them.

“I told you to come alone!” he protested after seeing Hanabi with Neji.

“Yeah, right. And leave her where she might get captured?” Neji sneered at the stupidity of this man.

“Well… you can always leave her in the compound—” he tries to suggest.

“no. there’s a reason why I avoid that place, minimum chances of discovery then. Besides, he has taken interest in her, do you have any idea what he’ll do to me if something were happen to her on my watch?”

“Yeah, fine.” Kabuto said sullenly. Why can’t some people follow instructions?

“Anyway, why did you call me here? And why did you use the peacock of all things. Do you have any idea what sort of attention it must have attracted?” really, some people have no idea about maintaining secrecy.

“Yes.” He doesn’t sound bothered.

“ANBU would have been on our hides—what? You mean you knew? And you still decided to use it?” Neji barely held himself back from strangling the fool.

“Hmm. And it was just considered the exotic bird of a noble who was released for flying. I’ve got the paperwork and everything to prove it.” The insane medic sounded so proud too.

Neji sighed again. this man is so frustrating to deal with. But considering that he worked as an assistant for Orochimaru of all people…

“And I called you because I need more subjects.” He finally stated his purpose.

“What happened to the last ones?” he shouldn’t have run out of them so quickly.

“Are all used up. But I do have some progress to show for it, I don’t kill people just because of the cruelty’s sake you know.” He puffed up righteously.

“Could have fooled me.” He muttered.

“You see,” Kabuto began to explain as Hanabi got tired of standing around, “I can successfully perform the process, if only I have a way to make sure the organs don’t die in the process, taking the subject with them.”

“What?” the Hyuga is startled with this sudden information.

“You see, after injected with the demon blood, the cellular structure is defined from the very beginning. As a result, the organs of the subject die without even completing the process, and considering they are in the use by the subject at that time…” Kabuto trailed off.

“They croak. Got it. But seriously, I don’t think I can get you anyone above Genin, anymore of this, and we might have to kidnap civilians.” Neji frowned.

“Scraping at the bottom of a barrel I see.” Kabuto couldn’t resist that barb.

Before Neji could say anything else in reply to that, one of the machines attached to the subjects, (the Chunin supplied by Neji,) started to beep continuously, whereas before it was silent.

Kabuto ran to the experiment, and started to read the output. “What? This is impossible! Just few moments ago, his organs were degenerating just like all the others—” he saw Hanabi standing next to the subject.

“What did you do?” Kabuto asked, while trying to control himself.

“Well, I saw that this guy’s organs were degenerating, while the structure of another organ was forming on its place, but this new structure was getting in the way of the operation of the original organ. So, I hit it with the gentle fist, and the organ stopped working.”

“But shouldn’t it have killed him?” the medic is puzzled with that reply.

“Yes. But you know about the suspended animation?” Neji asked.

“Yeah?” Kabuto is liking where this is going.

“And how certain medical ninjas who have the knowledge of the pressure points can put a ninja in a false death like state, and if anyone would check up on them, they would actually appear to be dead?” Neji elaborated.

“You mean this is the same?”

“Exactly. Only, instead of performing this on a one organ, we’ll need to perform it on the body wide scale.” Neji concluded the explanation.

“Oh. Did I do something good?” that entire conversation went over her head, since she didn’t have all the information.

“Good? You presented the solution of a problem which has been causing me headaches for days.” Praised Kabuto.

“Great. you’ll have those Genin. They all have been Genin for ten years, and have no interest in getting promoted.” Neji sneered at such unambitious people.

“Ah, waist of space then?” Kabuto picked up on the thoughts of Hyuga.

“The very same.”

(In the demon world…)

As the gate closed behind him, Naruto unknowingly sounded the alarms all over the world, alerting the summons of his arrival, and they began to gather a force to engage with him promptly.

But Naruto of course, have already someone to deal with, as flames started to circle around both the demon and the Sylph, and from those flames walked out a woman with long hares…

“Welcome overlord,” she said sarcastically, “I hope you would be much more of a challenge than before.” She said with a sultry smile.

(end.)

* * *

(Omake.)

Naruto, after crossing a most strange forest filled with equally strange plants and animals, arrives on this strange house.

The house doesn’t appear to be any different than a family house, with one ground floor, and likely having one room on the first floor. But the strangeness comes from the fact that such a normal looking house is located write in the center of this strange forest.

He enters into this strange house. As soon as he opens the door, an intercom of sorts buzzes to life, though he fails to see any obvious location for it since he didn’t see any camera on the door, or inside of the hall.

“Please make your way to the stares, and take right afterwards.” Said the voice on the intercom.

He follows the instructions, all the while feeling as if the house itself is observing him. ‘Don’t be silly, houses can’t observe people… can they?’

Remembering Sasuke’s warnings, Naruto reserves his judgement.

Walking to another door, Naruto was just about to knock, but the door opened automatically. The man inside motioned him to come in.

The fact that he was busy doing something with the computer on his desk, or he did the motion without turning his chair around was not lost on Naruto. There is sufficient lighting in the room, yet he is having trouble noticing any details.

After the man turns around his chair, Naruto gets the first look of the person who invited him here. Immediately, what strikes him is his size, and another thing which is even more striking are the eyes which appear to be made of some artificial material.

“Ah, good of you to come so promptly. Didn’t your two friends come with you?” he asked.

“No, apparently Sasuke has heard of your reputation. He wishes to know more before committing to anything.”

“And thus, you are here. Good senses!” he praised Sasuke. “Let me introduce myself. I am Hatori Eagle.” He extended his hand, which Naruto shook.

“The immortal mage, or something like that?” Naruto said, while taking the seat in front of Hatori in which he motioned Naruto to sit.

“Well, not even getting trapped for millions of years within the core of a star has killed me yet, so I suppose you can call me that.” he said with a smirk.

“So, can we talk about the letter which you sent to us?” Naruto cut to the chase.

“Yes. There is not much to say about it really. I mean you did read my offer, didn’t you? I don’t think what else there is to talk about.” His lips are then spread in a sheepish smile. “Though if you do point out where exactly do you need clarification, I think that would allow us to have a most productive discussion. I am really not used to dealing with people, unless I am experimenting on them,” this reminded Naruto of Orochimaru, “Or when I am trying to offend them so they would leave me alone.”

“Look, do you have scripts ready?” Naruto asked.

“Indeed, they are. Created by my own automation tools. I really don’t trust others you see.”

“Well, why don’t you give us the scripts? And if not, then the general plot would be fine.” Naruto explained, since people are often cagey about such details.

“You can have both of those. Just do keep in mind that if you did try to steal them, they are enchanted with the nastiest curses I could think of. Not even the luck of the demon would save you from their effects.” For a moment, Naruto imagined two balls of fires staring at him from his eye sockets, but the feeling disappeared as soon as it came.

Opening up a drawer of his desk, he brings out three scripts and one booklet. “Take these, and bring your friends from one month later if everything is to your liking. We’ll start the shooting.”

After bidding each other adieu, Naruto walks out of the strange house, having a lot of things to discuss with Sasuke and Sakura.

(End omake.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the guest who gave me the third kudos of this story, thank you very much. You are the reason why I think that this story has real human traffic as well, rather than internet bots.
> 
> Also, just 13 views away from 200 views! Let's break the limit!


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27.

Going for a hunt.

(With Naruto and Lydia, in demon world.)

“Oh joy…” was the lack luster reaction of Naruto.

The woman huffed. “Is that any way to treat a woman?”

“Wow,” the Sylph spoke then, “I never thought that someone would call you out on that.”

“Eh, don’t care much about it, she’s an insufferable bitch anyway.”

“Why? Because I made you scream?” said bitch asked with a smirk.

“Why don’t you try me again? we’ll see who would scream this time.” Naruto challenged, with fires of revenge in his eyes.

“Wow,” Yamato’s voice interrupted the conversation, “Last I saw you; you were just a fledgling succubae, it seems you have done nicely for yourself for all these years.”

“Finally, someone with more reason around him. Hopefully, your influence would teach him how to treat a lady properly.” The woman said.

“The succubae part kind of explains it now.” The Sylph commented.

“Hello there, by the way. My name is Elena.” She introduced herself to Lydia.

“Nice to meet you, Lydia the rogue Sylph.” Lydia received the greeting gracefully, and introduced herself.

“Aren’t you the one who caused a massive cyclone around the black megalodon’s territory?” Elena asked.

Lydia smirked. “So, the exploits of me have already started to spread I see.”

While Naruto admired the succubae, (Not that she didn’t knew, or minded,) with her long flowing blond hair, which are tied on a ponytail which comes to her waste, her shapely body, her curves, and of course those two things right below a beautiful face—

“Naruto?” Yamato asked, “How did you met her?”

Sadly, it seems that his sword has a bad timing. “When I stumbled upon the hell’s gate, and decided to walk in, she was the one who welcomed me.”

“Oh. Didn’t she tried to kill you?” Yamato asked, knowing the fate of the humans who are unlucky enough to find a Hell’s gate, and end up in the underworld.

“Trust me, she did.” The demon said flatly.

“What happen after that?” Yamato wanted some more details.

“After I just kept surviving her attacks, and kept annoying her, she decided to kill me… in an entirely different manner.” Naruto said with a grin.

“Oh. This is where the screaming part comes from, isn’t it?” Yamato’s comment however, wiped that grin off his face.

“I was a human back then Yamato, a human from the clan of those who are gifted when it comes to endurance, and a demon inside of me which also increased the said endurance.” Naruto said in a boastful tone, as if the fact that he survived within the battle against Elena is alone enough to make him a hero to men everywhere.

“Still,” Yamato said seriously, “You survived. Not even a high-grade demon can do that if she suddenly decided to kill them that way, and I have watched her do it to them, males, females, none of them are safe from her.” The sword shuttered at those ancient memories.

Naruto grins. ‘Of course, it is time for the revenge.’

‘I hear that those types of revenges are the sweetest.’ Yamato encouraged this line of thinking.

Done chatting with Yamato, and seeing that both ladies were waiting for him at some distance where they walked away when he was busy talking to Yamato, Naruto walked up to them, and told them where exactly they are going.

Teleporting within the territory of the Golden Crow clan, Naruto appeared in flames along with his two female companions.

Jin Wuya was waiting for them there along with his clan head and father, Yagaratasu. Observing the theatrics of Naruto, he commented, “That’s good. An overlord needs to be overbearing to extreme level!” he said with his booming voice with a nod of approval at Naruto.

Meanwhile, his son was palming his face nearby. “Please don’t encourage him…”

While Jin Wuya is not very big in terms of size, (Yet, and anyone who says otherwise will be turned to ashes with a snap of his wing,) his father was huge in comparison.

He is also adorned with the flaming wings on his back, from which sculls of his enemies still hung, blackened by the constant heat. Though Jin was not as overbearing as his father, something for which he gets a lot of lectures for, Yagaratasu was completely opposite. If you have a higher station, or more power, then you should act like it, in his opinion.

After few minutes later, all the demons (And demonesses in the case which they decided to kill me,) were seated, and Naruto was explaining what he is going to do next, and what are their parts to play in this next upcoming round.

“So, you see,” Naruto was just getting done with the tormenting everyone with a presentation in the style of the PowerPoint style: illusion, “I’ll need you two,” referring to Lydia and Elena, “To make sure that those damned summonses don’t get in my way, and I’m sure the Crows will enjoy assisting you.”

Finally breaking through the boredom, Yagaratasu stood up, destroying the table around which they were seated, and declared in his loudest voice, “Indeed. I’ll teach those lazy, good for nothing, high and mighty, preachy bastards of an unnatural mutants, why they shouldn’t mess within the matters of demons!” by the end of his speech, he was covered in flames from his head to tows, (Or I suppose claws?)

This actually did two things: one, it erased the boredom which has been building up for a while, so much so that Lydia was thinking of taking a nap, and two, its silenced Naruto.

‘I like him, can we keep him?’ Yamato squealed in happiness.

‘Shut up Yamato! Can’t you see that he’s stealing my thunder?’ Naruto however, is very opposite of happy.

“Ahem.” Naruto cleared his throat to get the attention back on himself, “While you do that, I’ll go hunt some people.”

“Who?” they all asked.

“Oh, you know, the kind who would provide us with a lot of clout, and brute force if we need that.” he said mysteriously.

After saying that, Naruto teleported away, while the demons left to alleviate their boredom, except for Yagaratasu, who left to perform the surprise inspection on his army.

* * *

(In the human world, Leaf, Elemental nations.)

The biggest problem for any Shinobi village is to ensure that they aren’t infiltrated by the enemy spies, and saboteurs. Since their entire profession relies on the secrecy, this is a difficult task.

Add a defected Shinobi into the factors, and the problem becomes more difficult. But defectors like Naruto are trickier, since who knows where they have made their connections, it really didn’t help the Leaf that before this, Naruto was pretty much ignorable.

Sure, some people believed that he could become a Hokage, but most of them didn’t thought that it would ever happen.

This is the reason why the commander of the recently reactivated root, (Sarutobi is no doubt rolling in his grave,) and the fifth Hokage were discussing the potential traitors among them.

“His classmates by all means, appeared to be clean,” Danzo was done with his report, “But I won’t put them out of the list yet.”

“Hmm. Makes sense. The problem is that we can’t afford to look into our own Shinobi constantly, not only we don’t have that much manpower, we simply don’t want something like this on our hands right now, since it can get out sooner or later…” Tsunade trailed off.

“And it will be a demotivating factor for our forces.” Danzo finished for her.

“Exactly.”

“You’re planning something aren’t you?” the bandaged old man said knowingly.

* * *

(At the other side of the human world, with general Kasparov.)

The general was reading the report sent by captain Thompson, in which he explained that they did managed to corner the group who stole the Gigantor. But before they could reclaim the machine, the group managed to give them a slip, and since the skirmish attracted the attention of the Shinobi dew to the brewing situation in the nations, the captain decided to disengage for the moment.

The general sighed. ‘Let’s just hope whoever stole that machine monster doesn’t know of its full capability. Who knows? They might break it accidentally… maybe it is a time for a vacation? These thoughts shouldn’t plague me…’

* * *

(With Lydia and Elena.)

While the general was having his own plans of vacation, (As well as thinking that all this stress is making him go mad slowly,) in the demon world, Naruto’s allies have spread the news all over the demon world that he is entering into one of the fortress of an overlord.

The general consensus within the demon population is “better you than me, bro.”

This of course, was not to get anything out of the demons, but to keep them out of their fares, as they prepare for a war with summons. None of them wanted any ambitious demon to suddenly throw their lot down with the summons, (Not that they would do it, demons keep them in a disdain,) but they decided to not take any chances.

Lydia and Elena were with the forces of the Golden Crow clan, surrounded by the flaming ravens and crows, and their constant croaking.

“You know, if it weren’t for your sound filtering, I think I would have gone mad by that raucous.”

Lydia was filtering the sounds of the flaming birds, since she and Elena didn’t want to suffer from a headache before the battle even starts.

“You think they would be more disciplined, shows what can you expect from the barbarians.” Lydia sniffed disdainfully.

“Oy.” Jin Wuya said from next to them, whom the two women were ignoring, “I’ll tell you, I’m not a barbarian. I’m the most refined, most hansom, and the strongest crow you have ever seen!”

“Oh look, you missed one.” Elena said while watching the rant of Jin.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

“So,” Yamato was muttering to Naruto, as the demon approached a cave, “We left two women, with the orgy of a one-sided slaughter, to enter a cave?”

“Don’t worry Yamato, we’ll have a real orgy when I’m done with these sleeping bastards. But first? I must hunt a wolf.” Naruto grinned dangerously.

(End.)

* * *

(Omake)

“I think we should go.” Sasuke spoke, after one minute of silence in which he contemplated what Naruto told them.

“You sure?” Sakura asked, since Sasuke is very hard to convince.

“Look. if it was anyone else, I probably would have shredded the letter, and burned the torn pieces. But as I have told you both, he has a reputation.”

“He’s right Sakura.” Naruto concurred, “He seems to be giving us a genuine offer.”

“Hmm. He also gave you the scripts for us and the booklet.” She looked at the script of her character distastefully. “Though I can’t help noticing that you two seem to have much more better rolls early on.”

“Surely that is not the only reason to reject his offer?” Sasuke asked.

“Yeah. Remember that you didn’t have a great roll in the early episodes of our show.” For a moment, they all flashbacked into the early parts of their career.

“Well then,” Sakura brings out the contract. “What are we waiting for?”

After all three of them signed the paper, it disappeared in flames.

(End omake.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am delighted to inform you, that we have broken through the 200 view mark, and my story currently sits at 204 hits!
> 
> Thank you very much for that guys. Also, feel free to chime in with your suggestions and comments in general, I would love to have a conversation with you.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28.

A lone wolf

(In the demon world, with the summon alliance.)

The Grand Summon Alliance, comprising of toads, snakes, and slugs as the primary members, as well as other secondary members like dogs, turtles, and monkeys along with some smaller animal clans, were preparing to assault for stopping Naruto from entering the overlord’s fortress.

But despite such a force, the kind of which has been never brought up together yet, these summonses have various worries, two of them are chief.

First, their worry for what exactly the other summon clans who refused their alliance, are going to suffer as a result for their shortsightedness. Uzomaki won’t be leaving them alone, of that, they were sure.

After all, if you are not with these demons, you are against them, this has been their thinking ever since the time immemorial, and they don’t see how neutrality would change this.

Their second worry is whether dew to the battle, the overlord himself might decide to come out. They have heard the tales of his conquering habits, as well as organizing large bloody tournaments for his blood thirsty audience. Though when it comes to shear enjoyment out of battle, he doesn’t compare to the most powerful overlord. According to some estimations, if these two would have ever come to blows, the entire hell would have been destroyed.

* * *

(With allies of evil…)

Sneers plastered across their faces; the demons watched the army of the Summons Alliance approaching them.

None of them were taking this rag tag bunch of mutated animals from the human world seriously. And to top it all off, various members of the Golden Crow clan, along with their other demonic allies, were itching to give the summons a beating of their lives, since they always acted so righteous when it came to demons.

Telling them off for their battling tendencies, for killing each other like barbarians… as if. These animals were lucky enough that the nature energy mutated them and gave them intelligence. But they treat their unmutated counterparts with disdain, and talk about barbarity?

Thinking about that all, boils the blood of Yagaratasu. “Outrageous! Today, you pathetic weaklings would learn why you shouldn’t be righteous towards your betters, hahahaha!”

Lydia and Elena looked at each other, then they looked at Jin Wuya together.

“Don’t worry, I also think that he is taking it awfully personally.” The crow assured.

When the battle began, these four demons watched the slaughter from the sideline. since after watching the one-way slaughter caused them to think that it is not worth their involvement.

All was fine, until the summons started to cheer for no reason, and pointed towards the sky.

When the demons looked at the sky, they saw dragons flying at the battle. Once more plastering the looks of disdain on their faces, the demons prepared to welcome them with slaughtering more of their numbers, and adding the dragons to their tally.

Unfortunately for them, the dragons brought with them a secret weapon, a cannon which was mounted on the back of the largest of them. when the dragons saw that Uzomaki wasn’t among the demons yet, the general of their army decided that the demons would prove to be nice target practice until he arrives.

Meanwhile, the commanders of the Alliance took a breath of relief, since the arrival of the dragons, and their weapon relieved the pressure on their army.

“What do you think made them change their mind?” the turtle asked the large dog next to him.

“We can’t say for certain. They change their mind a lot.” The dog shook his head, making shaggy fir fly everywhere.

* * *

(With the wanabe overlord…)

“So, we’re supposed to search for someone?” Yamato asked.

“Yes.” Naruto confirmed.

“That person apparently lives in a cave,” still Yamato asked.

“Yes.” Naruto confirmed once more.

“Which still doesn’t surprise you, given that it has been six thousand years since I have been created, and these morons are still using the caves!” Yamato thundered in rage.

“I don’t see the problem? Why are you getting so worked up about it?” Naruto said with a puzzled expression.

“Given the knowledge of the demons, they should have been able to Conker the nearby planets, and moving within the space on the planet sized ships, capture even more worlds, not live in a pathetic cave!” Yamato is very disappointed in the current generation of demons.

“Living in the daydream by design, much?” the demon asked with a smirk.

“Shut up.” Yamato sulked, “When you’ll live as long as I have, then you’ll realize…”

“Stop whining Yamato, we don’t want to give a terrible impression to our host.” Naruto said, as he entered within the cave.

The occupant of the cave opened his eyes upon his entrance, and they both looked at each other.

This man looked like he has been living at the edge of society for a very long time, from his warned out clothes which Naruto thought looked like have gone through many patch work of sowing, (Considering he himself has gone through such fazes, Naruto did recognize such clothes,) as well as his rather wild appearance, not to mention the hostile gaze he lifted at Naruto.

“Why have you come here?” he asked.

Naruto also noted that his voice has the harshness which comes from disuse. “To make you an offer.”

“What?” he sounded startled.

“I’m planning to collect various powerful people along with me.” Naruto elaborated a little. ‘Hm. Judging from his startled behavior, he must be not used to such offers.’

“For what purpose?” he asked Naruto, eying him evilly. ‘I swear, if he is another one of those salesmen who try to sell me on an overly expensive course for my child, (I don’t even have a child!) which are completely useless in teaching anything, and are a complete waste of time, then they’ll never find his body!’

It seems that living alone has some grave consequences, judging from the thoughts of this cave man.

“To ensure my freedom of course!” Naruto struck a heroic pose.

The man considered the answer for a moment, and then asked another question. “And what else you want to do?” he breathed easily that he won’t have to tolerate another sales pitch. Couldn’t they see that he is very happy living in his cave? And he doesn’t need any upgrades thank you very much.

“Challenge one of the overlords and take their strength for my own.” Naruto said with a confident smirk. ‘See Yamato, that is how you pitch the sale.’ Naruto said to Yamato mentally.

Yamato strangely, didn’t reply.

The man shook his head. “Leave, I am not interested in your offer.”

“Ha! Rejected, after you came all the way down here no less!” the sword spoke, and roared with laughter.

“You sure you don’t want to reconsider?” the demon asked with an eyebrow.

“No.” he said flatly. ‘And to think I thought this would prove to be entertaining. But only to turn out yet another fool! Why me?’

“Hahahahaha! Such harshness!” Yamato couldn’t stop laughing.

“Shut up Yamato!” Naruto exploded, “Whose side are you on?”

“The amusement’s side.” Yamato answered, and started to giggle once more.

What the man was hoping that this demon would clearly leave him alone after he rejected him so harshly. His bickering with the unseen voice is unusual, but he thought that he will walk out of here while the argument continues.

Clearly, he was wrong. Instead, what he got was a demon, who was quite content in bickering with the unseen voice at the top of his lungs, hurting his sensitive hearing in the process…

“I swear Yamato,” Naruto yelled into the argument which has devolved into the who yells loudest, “I’ll shove you in a pink scabbard—”

The man suddenly was right next to Naruto in the sudden burst of speed. “You are annoying. I’ve changed my mind, you die.” For the only people he hated more than sales people are the people who won’t leave him alone when he asks them politely.

By a strange motion of his hand, blood red colored light came out, and hit Naruto who was too close to dodge out of the way.

Seeing that the light did not have any effect, the man made some more motions, and more colored lights came out. While the first one did hit Naruto, and made him wince with the impact a little, more of these lights were deflected by Naruto through the use of Yamato.

Still, some of them hit him, pushing him back from his initial position, while the deflected lights collided with the walls of the cave.

Naruto saw how the walls made of solid rock were melted by the damage, some of them were just plainly broken, and some of them were sizzling as if spread by the acid.

“Interesting you survived that, any other demon would have been turned into the pile of broken limbs, or a sizzling puddle of melted acidic body.” He complimented.

“Well, you see… whatever you are, you’re not dealing with the average demon anymore.” Naruto said dramatically.

“We’ll see.” He sneered.

“Dammit, I didn’t realize he was one of them, Naruto, we need to leave, now.” Yamato sounded panicked all of a sudden.

“Why?” Naruto didn’t understand this sudden panic.

“Look, he’s involved with mages. Best to steer clear of them…” Yamato said, shivering from the images of gibbering horrors in his mind.

“Well, I don’t know about these mages you keep spouting about, but he attacked me first. And I am not leaving because of some mysterious group!” Naruto declared.

Not for the first time, Yamato cursed at having such a foolish wielder. “Madness!”

“This is not madness, this is retaliation! Fire Blast!”

With the kanji for fire, the man was covered within the explosion of flames as the demon laughed in the wake of the explosion. But his laughter didn’t last long, as the man walked out of the flames without any damage, with a shield colored with green around him, and with a stick?

“Hay,” Naruto said, “What’s up with that?” he pointed to the stick.

“It appears that I can’t deal with you with my usual means. How annoying, that I’ll have to transform to deal with an annoying pest like you.” the man didn’t answer.

And to top it all off, he even refused to explain about the damn stick, even when he asked politely. Didn’t his mother teach him manners? At least Naruto could excuse himself since his parents are not around, and the people of the orphanage ignored him. But what’s his excuse?

Naruto didn’t have long to contemplate about the manners of some people, as his opponent’s body started to change, bone structure was change to accommodate the new type of body, joints were realigned, the clothes were ripped since they were unable to contain the new body, and Naruto saw that in front of him was standing a huge wolf, bigger than any normal wolf has right to be.

That’s not counting summons, if there are any wolf summons…

The man was fast before, but this time, he matched the speed of Raikage when he came at Naruto, he brought Yamato to slice his side, but the wolf avoided the slash just as fast he attacked, the only thing which Naruto cut were few strands of fur.

Growling, the wolf came at him again, Naruto was shocked to see that his paws were on fire. So, Naruto through a hastily prepared Water Pulse at his face, which caused the cave to be filled with water up to his ankles, and carried the wolf backward and further within the cave, slamming him into the wall in front of which he was sitting when Naruto arrived.

Shaking his head to get rid of the dizziness, Naruto saw that the wolf was no worse for wear even after the impact to the wall, which he just proved by shaking his body to splash the water everywhere, including Naruto.

“Oi, just because I hit you with the water, doesn’t mean that you can splash me like that.” the demon complained.

The wolf however, looked at Naruto as if contemplating him, and then suddenly came at him once more in a rush, the water not slowing him down even the slightest.

But right as he got closer, Naruto saw how he split into the multiple of himself, all of them coming at him. His theory of these other selves of his opponent being illusion were proven wrong by the splashing water by their movement, since an illusion won’t move the water.

Deciding that he should move from his position, since he didn’t want to be dragged down by the identical wolves, Naruto appeared within the group of wolves, a blur among the fangs and claws, and blade, cutting them down after another.

Once he was done with dealing with them, he looked around to find the real one, who was at some distance charging an attack, looking like Hyper Beam, except the color was violet instead of orange, and the entire beam was giving him the feeling of wrongness which he only experienced with the Chakra of a tail beast as a human.

Apparently, he was too late to stop the attack, thus the wolf howled, and sent the beam within its mouth at Naruto, who after the impact, exploded.

The explosion was strong enough that one of the walls of the cave also came down due to it, and the wolf watched the destruction with satisfaction evident in his body language.

But the satisfaction didn’t last long, as his ears heard the footsteps of his annoying enemy, and caught the scent of Naruto.

“You know, that was impressive. This,” he pointed at the destruction caused by the wolf, “Is the reason why I want you on my side.”

The wolf snarled. “Yes, yes, you refused.” The demon appeared next to the wolf, and punched him right on his snout.

The wolf was stunned since his sensitive nose was struck in the blow, and he apparently couldn’t process the new speed of the demon.

that is why Naruto was able to kick him on his side, making the wolf airborne, and juggled him with multiple blows of fire Punch.

By the time the wolf crashed to the water covered ground of the cave, he was knocked out, and the entire cave was filled with the smell of burning fur.

As the transformation reversed itself, Naruto grabbed him and brought him out of the cave, waiting for him to wake up.

“You know, he clearly refused to join us. Why exactly are you not killing him right now?” Yamato asked. ‘Back in my day—better parish that line of thinking.’

“Because, maybe I shook off enough cobwebs from his rusty mind that he’ll listen to me now?” Naruto is still hopeful.

“I doubt it.” Yamato however, is not.

Fifteen minutes later, the man was awake, and is realizing groggily that he is outside of the cave, still alive somehow.

“Awake, hmm?” Naruto asked, seeing him move.

“Oh,” the man sat up from his prone position where Naruto laid him down, “You, didn’t kill me. Why?”

“Because, as I have stated before, I want you to join me.”

“Well…” the man considered once more, and nodded. “Fine.” If it kept those salesmen from tracking him down, that’ll be great too. After all, they are terrified of the strong demons like this one.

“Great then! So, what should I call you?” Naruto asked, happy from his success.

“Kai.” The man answered.

“I’m gonna call you fluffy!” the demon declared.

“You die!” for the first time, Kai raised his voice.

* * *

(With Anoki, in the office of Tsuchikage, Hidden Rock.)

Anoki sighed in his office, done for the day with his responsibilities.

He creakily got up from his chair, and looked at his village from the window, which only showed the part of his village.

Too bad that despite their repeated trials, they just couldn’t create the office like Hokage, which overlooks the entire Leaf village. His Sensei was furious to find out.

Thinking of Leaf brought the thoughts of the Shinobi who came from there, from unsurpassable legends and monsters like Madara and Hashirama, to the modern-day nightmares like Minato and Naruto.

‘Well, the man may have been a nightmare, but at least he did everything for his village, instead of his selfish desires.’

While the hate for him may run deep in Rock, Anoki knew at some deep level all the while, that Minato was not selfish in the least. His son, however is an entirely different story.

‘But then again, it is surprising that someone like that didn’t turned out earlier, given our treatment of Jinchuriki in general.’ He thought with regret which he will never show outside of his thoughts.

Though he shows a generally uncaring attitude to everyone else, each time he thinks about Roshi and Han, both of them who were related with him at some distant, there’s a pang which goes through his heart.

Aside from Korotsuchi, Anoki doesn’t have any surviving blood within this world, nor any friends, now that he thinks about it.

His teammates are long dead, his Sensei have been dead for a long time, and even the rivals like the third Mizukage, or the third Hokage, have been dead for quite some time, leaving him to be the only Kage of the third generation, the only survivor of the generation which boasted monsters like Third Raikage once.

His body may also have started to show its age, his mind however, remains sharp. And he decides that before his mind also starts to go away, he should clean up the mess of his generation, starting by Uzomaki.

After all, Jinchuriki are the responsibilities of the Kages of the Shinobi nations. And Anoki might be many things, but he is not someone who runs away from his responsibilities.

* * *

(With Mizukage and Raikage, in the Hidden mist.)

Chojuro, who returned from his duty saw how both Kages were engaged in a glaring contest. Turning to the eyepatch wearing man, he asked him, “So, what is it this time?”

“They can’t decide who should lead the attack on the Land of Moon. They already have tried rock paper scissors, a game of go, a game of Shogi, several rounds of poker, and now this.” Ao was dripping with disapproval.

So, what if they are insanely strong Shinobi? Behavior like that is improper for a Kage. (According to Mei, that attitude is exactly the reason why he’ll never make it as a Kage.)

A huffed, as he finally blinked his eyes. They were starting to ache after hours of glaring at his opponent.

“Fine.” He grumbled. “you can lead the attack.”

Mei smirked in victory. ‘They’ll never know what hit them.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Letter to monsters has been updated. If you haven't given that story a chance yet, then I encourage you to do so.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29.

What a strange guy.

(With Naruto.)

After Kai and Naruto were done trying to kill each other for petty reasons of name calling, the wolf was teleported to battle field, let Elena straiten him out.

Considering he has been living in a cave for who knows how long, Naruto thinks that he probably is suppressed, and one glance from the Succubae would actually melt the poor hapless fool right at that spot.

“Soooo,” Yamato said in a board tone, “Done with him?”

“Yeah.”

“Great.” this news failed to lift the mood of Yamato, “Where to now?”

“To the mountains of hell, of course!” Naruto declared, pumping his fist in the air.

The sword just sighed.

When will his wielder understands that a fine sword like himself does not belong in the wilderness of Hell? He is supposed to be with those hot ladies of the battle, who probably are having the time of their lives killing poor helpless and often righteous creatures.

And where he is stuck at? In the back water parts of hell, with no ladies, no battles, no wonderful blacksmithing shops for him to be pawned off on, where the beautiful apprentices would take care of him…

* * *

(In the human world, with Raikage.)

Alone in his office, Raikage is holding his head on his hands.

“Why?” he spoke out loud, “Why do I even bother? Let that foolish woman manage this mess.”

Well, mess is not exactly what anyone would call it, since everything is running on the correct schedule, and the Shinobi under his command haven’t started to slaughter each other.

But he despised such position of managements. There was a reason why he let his father handle the responsibilities of the Kage during the third war, and waited to encounter Shinobi like Minato. The thought alone would have been enough to get his blood pumping, his heart rate sky rocketing in the excitement of the battle.

But now? Minato is dead, his son, well he is an ally, and spars are nice and all, but they are nothing like a battle to the death with an enemy, and he is stuck with responsibilities which he simply couldn’t leave on others.

* * *

(In the hidden Leaf…)

Danzo has just called the meeting consisting of the clan heads, this being a war time, and coupled with him acting as a right hand of Hokage recently, left them no room to refuse, even if some of them wanted to.

Since Hiashi has been replaced by his daughter few months ago, and Ino Shika Cho of the previous generation are dead, there were few young faces within the council.

“So,” Shibi the clan head of the Aburame, and the oldest clan heads present there asked, “Why have you called this meeting?”

“The reason is simple.” Danzo and the Aburame clan sounded same to the ears of the younger clan heads. “We need to evaluate the loyalty of our Shinobi.”

“Meaning?” Hinata asked with a contemplative tone.

“Meaning is that there are certain agents of the enemy among us of whom we are unaware of. Fighting with Uzomaki and his forces on a battle field can only succeed if we remove his agents, sympathizers, and spies from our own forces.”

“I have called you all here on the behalf of the Hokage,” that alarmed the clan heads, “The village cannot monitor everyone within its forces. Thus, you, who hold the responsibilities of your clan, are the best to evaluate the loyalties of your Shinobi. The rest, we can manage on our own.”

“But,” here a threatening note entered in his voice, “Failure to comply with these orders would result in the extreme punishment, at the discretion of the Hokage, of course.” While none of the clan heads have any way to know it for real, they all imagined Danzo grinning under in his head, barely suppressing it from appearing on his face.

While Shikamaru and Hinata were thinking about implementing these orders, and the older Shinobi who have already fought within the wars remained unshaken by Danzo’s declarations, Choji, and Ino appeared to be shaken.

‘I must guide them properly, lest they be eaten alive by the politics of their own clan.’ Shikamaru thought in his head.

He might have become colder, and the training of the snakes may have made him more ruthless, but it still did not mean that he is willing to forget his friends with whom he has grown up ever since the childhood.

* * *

(In the Hell, with Naruto.)

“You’ll go to hell, Naruto!” Yamato said suddenly.

“What?” the demon asked about this latest proclamation of his sword, while walking in a forest with abnormally giant trees.

“For neglecting a fight, you dishonor your self—”

“Honor is stupid—”

“For leaving beautiful ladies to fight on your behalf—” Yamato finally got to the point, but Naruto didn’t let him finish once more, continuing the game of interruption.

“Well, last I checked they didn’t mind, shouldn’t that count for something?” he asked.

“And for blue balling your most wonderful, powerful, and loyal sword—” Yamato couldn’t hide the true feelings.

“So, this is what it’s all about, huh?” Naruto asked with a frown.

“You’ll go to hell!” Yamato finally finished what he wanted to say, despite all those interruptions.

Three seconds of silence which were only interrupted by the footsteps of Naruto. “I already am in hell.” The demon said drily.

“Oh…” Yamato deflated.

“Besides, the hell is too good for the likes of me, Yamato.” Naruto whispered.

“Wait what?” Yamato asked in confusion, but he saw a building towards which his wielder was walking, so he forgot all about it.

“At least whoever this is lives in a proper building instead of a cave.” Yamato definitely considered this to be an improvement over the wolf.

“Well, you aren’t wrong about that at least. And by all looks, the building looks like a modern one, but why is it in the middle of this forest?” Naruto wondered.

“I’m sure the resident would be willing to answer all of your questions.” Yamato said.

“Good answer. Let’s ring the bell, shall we?” the demon said after arriving on the gates of the building which were closed, as well as a switch next to them labeled “Bell.”

“Quite helpful.” Yamato said sarcastically, as Naruto rang the bell.

As soon as the demon pressed the switch, loud bells started to chime everywhere within the building, (At least that’s what Naruto thinks,) and soon enough the doors opened with a mechanical hiss.

“That is strange,” Naruto muttered while walking inside, “I thought that he’ll confirm me through a camera or something first before opening the doors.”

“Maybe he thinks he can eat you?” Yamato said, with too much curiosity on Naruto’s opinion.

“What the hell Yamato?” Naruto called him out on it.

“Oh, don’t be surprised like that,” the sword said, “Demons might be on top here most of the times, but there are species which do treat them as prey.”

“I am nobody’s prey!” Naruto declared.

“Do not worry,” a heavy grinding voice said which sounded like a machine to Naruto’s ears, “No one will be preying on anybody here.”

Out of the corridor, a tall man as tall as Jiraiya or Kisame if Naruto has to guess walked out, and greeted him. “Greetings. My name is something you won’t understand, may I ask who are you?”

‘Isn’t that strange?’ Naruto thinks, he hasn’t never received such greeting before.

‘There are many things which are strange about him.’ Yamato replied mentally.

“I am Naruto Uzomaki.” Naruto decided that the politeness is the order of the day, since he greeted Naruto so courteously.

The man tilted his head to left, and looked like as if he is thinking something of really great importance. “Ah yes, I remember now. Aren’t you the one, who is trying to make demon council to declare you as an overlord?”

“The very same.” Naruto said with a flat expression. Naruto already succeeded on that one, looks like this guy hasn’t received the latest news.

“Well, I can’t decide what exactly the overlord would want from me,” the man trailed off.

“Well, let me explain then.” Naruto grinned, happy with a chance to use his people skills once more.

Ten minutes later, the man was nodding as if hearing a perfect sales pitch, and he has heard those a lot of times, all the while learning to nod at appropriate durations.

“Hmm. I haven’t done anything in let’s say, six or seven thousand years? Even tussling with those overlords was just a pastime, before most of them ended up dead by each other’s hand, and one sealed himself within his castle, while the other one, not wanting to be bored, fell asleep.”

Naruto sweat dropped at that. “You mean,”

“He is still asleep, yes. For which the Hell should be thanking him. If he would have remained awake and nothing entertained him then he’ll destroy the entire Hell as a retaliation.” The machine man said grimly.

“Oh. So, a question, how old are you?” Naruto asked, deciding not to dwell on the crazy ancient overlords who get bored easily.

“Hmhmhmhm. I suppose I should have figured that sooner or later you will ask this question.” That artificial laugh sounded terrifying to Naruto’s ears.

“Well? Don’t keep me in suspense.” He said, when there was no answer coming from the machine man.

“I am as of this moment, thirty thousand two hundred years, and eight months old.” He answered precisely.

As the man gave his age, Naruto’s jaw hit the floor. “How the hell? Why aren’t you an overlord yet then?”

“Because that title doesn’t necessarily comes with age. You will find Uzomaki, that just some people are old and have lived for a really long time, they aren’t necessarily more powerful for that.”

“Okay, I get that. But there was a reason why I asked you that question.” Naruto said.

“I figured.” And now he sounded smug to the demon’s ears.

“Did you know how Yamato was created?” Naruto asked very seriously.

“Hmm. Let me check my memories…” the man said, and after a minute he replied. “It appears that information is not here. I was not around in that area then, since the defeat of such a demon which was forged into such a fine sword would have been impossible to hide from me.”

Naruto’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. He knew that at some level, Yamato wanted to know where exactly he comes from, who he was before turning into a sword, but the answers are hard to find.

Not only that, the name of the person who defeated him and forged his soul into a sword is also missing, as if removed from the history deliberately.

“Fine. What about my proposal?” the demon come to the point of coming here.

Shrugging his shoulders, the man replied, “Why not? This might be amusing for a while. Besides, I should check whether the technology has improved any in my absence or not.”

“Well, not at least in the human world, not where I come from that is.” Naruto said, very disappointed from his home.

“That’s strange. From what I remember, your world was on the path for a revolution while last time I was there, and the technology was the center of it.” And from what he remembers, they had some great ideas, but they were hampered by their money obsessed society.

“What?” this was news to Naruto.

“I’ll join you no problem. But first, you must amuse me.” He didn’t elaborate any further.

“How? I can’t sing or dance, I should tell you in advance, not that I’ll do that.” now if only a girl to ask him to dance with her…

“Oh, nothing of the sort,” the man waved off the suggestions, “You must fight me.”

Clang!

As the man finished his sentence, his arm turned into a blade, which Naruto blocked by summoning Yamato.

Naruto was not surprised by this. He knew that there is a bloodline in the elemental nations called steel style, while he also remembers there was this spider guy who created webs which hardened into gold like material, before he ran into Neji.

However, what the man did next definitely surprised him.

As Naruto got some distance after the sudden attack, his chest compartment opened, and a cannon stared at Naruto’s face.

“Bringing bad memories?” Yamato asked, as the sword remembers the similar fight in the Land of Rain with one of the mechanical Pains.

“I would like to inform you that if you fired that thing, you’ll damage your building. The building which the likes of I have never seen since Elemental Nations are not capable of the technology and architecture of this level.” Naruto tried to assuage the machine man from using that canon.

“I’ll rebuild it.” was the simple answer, before the firing started.

As if the cannons were not enough with their blasts, his hands also morphed again, turning into smaller cannons which fired a blast of water, and other one with an electric attack which leaves devastation behind of itself the likes of which would make the Shinobi of the Cloud very envious.

But both the machine man and Naruto didn’t want to fight for too long, so as he saw the demon moving the earth to make its next move, the cyborg heled his finger in front of him as a signal for Naruto to stop.

Dropping his earthquake, which only caused the ground to vibrate a little, Naruto walked up to him. “Why did you stop? It was just getting interesting!”

“Hm. I just wanted to see your power that’s all.” He seems to be analyzing Naruto from his gaze.

“Fine, so what can I call you?” Naruto didn’t understand what exactly could have he learned about his strength with that brief skirmish.

“My original name you won’t understand.” He said the same thing which he said on Naruto’s arrival.

“Why?”

“The language in which it is pronounced is dead and lost.” He clarified.

“So, didn’t you take some other name or something?” Naruto asked.

“I did. I decided to call myself Robert Wong around fifteen thousand years ago.” He finally replied.

“Talk about the midlife crisis.” The demon muttered.

“you have no idea.” He spoke.

“Anyway, mind telling me what exactly is up with those trees? I haven’t seen such big trees anywhere in Hell.” Naruto said, while thinking how the animals of the forest of death would make this place more terrifying.

“You see, one of my genetically modified trees got mixed up within the forest, and they started to grow too fast, resulting in this. Though I should tell you that the trees were same back then, except they are now taken over by a modified strain.” Robert didn’t sound much worried about that.

“Whatever.” The demon huffed, thinking who the hell plays with trees in their free time? While teleporting himself and Robert to Lydia and Elena.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30.

Faulty UI, tangling with an overlord.

(With Naruto, at the battle field of hell.)

Naruto teleported right into the middle of a combination attack performed by the sages of the toad and snake clans, while the soldiers of the Golden crows actually standing up to that attack and making a competition out of it.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about waging a war.” Robert said, watching the spectacle.

“Yes. But I never intended for us to appear in the middle like that.” the demon answered with some embarrassment.

Naruto’s arrival remained hidden for now, as the summons were really struggling against the golden crows, and their army was in chaos.

So, it didn’t take him long to come to the camp of his side where all the people were present, not deeming this to be important fight since the summons were failing to provide a challenge.

“Helloooooo!” the demon greeted the board camp.

“Oh, look who showed up now.” The wolf said.

“Wait,” Robert recognized that voice, “You!”

“Me? How dare you show your face to me after all these years?” Kai said, getting up.

Immediately, both of them started to brawl with each other, while Yagaratasu cheers them for it, while the demon asks for the report from Elena.

“Simple. We steamrolled them, dragons showed up, made few impressive rolls in the air, got steamrolled in the process too, and I am feeling what exactly is the meaning of blue balls is now.” Was her report.

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll enter into that castle—” Naruto was just beginning to assuring the succubae that everything would be a fine, that suddenly an explosion took place in the camp.

Boom!

“You bastard, you destroyed my experiments!” Naruto hears the wolf scream, not for the first time. He is very easy to anger.

“No, you destroyed my experiments.” Robert declared calmly.

“—And I’ll deal with them first.” The demon finished.

Appearing right in the front of them, Naruto grabbed Kai’s long hare, and connected his face with the ground with a yelp. Robert was laughing at the scene first, only to receive a kick to the face from the demon, falling to the ground as well.

“Honestly, you two should learn to behave.” Both of them glared at him from the ground, “You can kill each other in your free time.” Apparently, the glares turned into adoration from that statement, “And remember who’s the boss.”

“As if. You didn’t beat me.” Robert said, not willing to take the words of Naruto lying down.

“Oh? And who was it who decided to come with me before I can start to counter attack?” the demon questioned, staring at him on the ground.

“Let me guess,” Kai said right next to Robert, “He gave up before you destroyed his lab?” the wolf smirked.

“Exactly.” The smirk turned into a grin of delight.

Robert refused to say anything. But soon enough they both saw the army of summons, and after glaring at each other, decided to kill the largest amount.

“If you lose, you’ll be my bitch.” Kai exclaimed.

“As if. If you lose, then I’ll turn you into a cyborg wolf.” Robert declared while marching towards the chaotic army, all the while fantasizing about the experiments he would do on Kai.

“Noooo!” Kai howled.

Meanwhile, just as Naruto was climbing the steps of the overlord’s fortress, all the while cursing at the overlord for making a castle with stairs, and how he is going to torment him (or her, no need to be rude, torture and pain for everyone,) that suddenly a cry brought the attention of the army of summons on to him.

“Uzomaki is here! Uzomaki is here, and climbing the stares of the castle of the overlord, stop him!”

Suddenly, toads, snakes, turtles and monkeys swarmed him, making Naruto furious and unleashing his demonic aura which threw them back to the field.

But then, he was surrounded by ten monkeys, who tried to seal him, thinking that they succeeded for a moment since Naruto didn’t appear from the seal again.

But then Naruto broke the seal, and crushed their hopes, along with their bodies.

Just as he took another step towards the castle, a roar from the sky attracted his attention, and he saw a dragon on whose back a cannon is resting, acting like a flying tank.

Of course, the cannon was aiming right at him. “Get real, do you think a cannon can harm me?”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The entire upper body of Naruto was turned into a hazy mist of blood, while the explosions of the cannon shook the castle a little.

Thinking that they got him, the dragon, along with other one of his brethren’s, got closer but right at that point Naruto regenerated and with a critically aimed Hyper Beam, took out the dragon carrying the cannon. But then he turned towards the summon army while charging a sphere in his right palm. “You love to get in the way of me so much? Fine. Here’s a gift from me!”

The energy of the sphere just showed his power, which made the sages in the army who could sense the power worried, and they sounded the order of retreat. But Naruto tossed the sphere, which exploded right above the army, taking out half of the forces.

Meanwhile, seeing that no more summonses were swarming him or blocking his path, he enters into the castle. He knew that Elena and Jin would handle the force from now on, since they were doing that before his arrival anyway.

‘I finally understand why Elena called them an infestation; they grow so quickly.’ He thought, while thinking about the numbers of the army he saw out on the field.

While summons can’t do anything to the demons even with their numbers advantage, there is a reason why demons don’t like to deal with them. aside from their location in the human world, their numbers are quite exhausting to deal with, like a school assignment which just won’t end.

* * *

(Within the castle.)

Naruto is just getting used to the sudden peace and quiet, since the fortress appears to be soundproof. “Yamato, remind me to include the soundproofing in my future evil place.” He said to his sword.

“What am I, your secretary?” Yamato however, doesn’t appears to be in cooperative mood.

“Look. If it is about not sharing the secretary videos, then I’ll get you the premium ones, okay?” Naruto spoke the write words.

“Then I’ll definitely remind you.” the sword stated, pleased.

‘Bastard.’ Naruto thought, ‘He has no idea how much they cost.’

Done with his appreciation of peace and quiet, Naruto started to walk further into the fortress.

Unfortunately, a mist descended on him, making hard to see in front of himself beyond few feet, and to top it all off, the mist was making him woozy.

Naruto fell to the ground while the distant yell of Yamato to stay awake echoes in his ears, before everything goes black.

* * *

(At some town, near sea shore.)

Naruto woke up to find himself laying on a beach where people would have been partying, except there were no people here, only quiet sound of waves from the sea is present here.

After getting up and brushing the sand off from himself, Naruto decides to check whether everything is fine or not, (After all there are people who would happily nab your organs in your unconscious state.)

He then decides to check with Yamato. ‘Oy, are you there?’

“Yeah, quiet down wouldya? This headache is killing me.”

“Wait,” the demon asked while walking away from the sea, “How do you have a headache? You don’t even have a head.”

“Yeah, discrimination I tell you, owww.” Yamato complained, and moans in pain.

Naruto looked around in a hope to find something to cure the headache of Yamato, but there is nothing here, no people, no shops, and certainly no blacksmiths who can deal with his headache.

‘Let’s just hope that it cures itself, because I don’t think we’re getting any help here.’ Naruto thought.

Just as Naruto told this to Yamato in his thoughts, he enters into the town, and for the second time everything goes black for him.

But this time, he didn’t lose consciousness. Expecting to be attacked in the darkness, Naruto brought out Yamato, but no attack came.

Instead some text started to scroll in the front of his eyes.

You have entered into the Umi town, a town which was used to be a place of business dew to being nearby a port. But recently, the town has strange events happening, people have disappeared, streets are empty, and once a bustling town is now reduced into a ghost town.

“The hell am I supposed to do for that?” Naruto said, not liking this scrolling text.

You are a new traveler who in the hopes of trying to make his fortunes in the gold smuggling of the east set out towards the East port. But your ship was wrecked in the middle of the way, and now you find yourself in the decilate town.

“Look, I don’t know who you are, but there are some really big problems with that story.” Naruto said to the text, especially since he is not a traveler who is trying to make his fortune in gold smuggling in east, or any other direction, really.

You have one healing blessing which you received from the members of the Nara clan, descendance of the god king Nara who ruled these lands ten thousand years ago.

“Bullshit! I don’t have anything from Naras, the only chance of anything which I could get from them was gone when that bastard—” his tirade was interrupted by the scrolling text.

You consider your next move.

“You’re just gonna ignore me, aren’t you?” Naruto asked, resigned.

The text remained blank.

“Okay fine. Use the damned blessing on Yamato.” Naruto said with a sigh.

At least there would be one less thing for him to worry about here, wherever this “Here” is happened to be.

Used the blessing of healing on Yamato.

Cured the headache, restored the sword to its prime condition.

You consider your next move.

You have two options:

Explore the town?

Or,

You want to go back to the sea and try to attract the attention of a nearby ship?

Gritting his teeth, Naruto said, “I would like to explore the town please.”

For the politeness, you receive +1 to your charisma bonus.

With that final bit of text, the darkness finally disappears, and Naruto proceeded into the town all the while plotting murder with Yamato, keeping his seething rage in check barely.

As he entered into the town, he saw a child waving at him.

This surprised him a little, since there are still no people around here, and yet a child is here alone. Intrigued, the demon went to investigate.

“Seriously,” Yamato said, “I think this place is starting to get to you.”

“Why would you say that?” Naruto feels quite sane, thank you very much.

“Who the hell narrates their actions in their head?” Yamato pointed out.

Naruto remained quiet. He often narrated his actions. Well what else he was supposed to do? When lost in the streets of the Leaf village, that narration kept him calm, and stopped him from breaking into tears of which ruthless people of the Leaf would take advantage of…

“See?” Yamato hissed, “You’re doing that again.”

“Be quiet Yamato, you’ll scare the girl.” He said, finally close enough to recognize the gender of the child.

As Naruto got closer, he realizes that the child has the none of the signs of an abandoned child should have. Clothes are not ripped or worn out, no sign of the malnutrition, no sign of loneliness or tears, nothing.

Even her long hare tide with a hairband looks so immaculate. (That hairband is the reason why he thinks that she’s a girl, no self-respecting boy would be caught with something like that in their hare…)

“Hello there,” he pitched his voice to be as non-threatening as possible, “Mind telling me who you are?”

The girl lifted her gaze, and looked into his eyes, making Naruto take a step back from surprise. Even among the demons, he has never seen such pure pitch-black eyes.

“Oh? Someone like you is afraid? perhaps you recognized a fellow monster?” she said in a monotone.

“Hm. probably, though it was more out of surprise than anything else. I haven’t seen anyone with such black eyes as you.” Naruto thanked Yamato silently for not making fun of him for that line.

“Maybe. But then again, it goes to show how foolish you are, to step into this place.” She said disapprovingly.

Naruto didn’t realize why though, but he was suddenly furious. “Who are you calling foolish huh?”

“Such anger. It is cute.” She smiles for the first time after meeting Naruto, showing off her pearly teeth.

His rage overcome his control, and he grabbed her hare and gave her a spinning face buster right into the street. He looked down after realizing what exactly he has done.

“Who! Where that rage is coming from?” Naruto muttered under his breath.

He looked down upon the unconscious girl who was disappearing slowly, feeling guilty that he lost his temper at a child… wait, disappearing girl?

‘Yamato, is there any sort of spell or something on me?’ he asked mentally.

‘As far as I can tell, there is nothing like that.’ the sword replied seriously.

He decided to walk away from the sight, while muttering, “This doesn’t bode well…”

“It doesn’t indeed.” A familiar voice said behind Naruto.

Instantly the rage was back, but this time, Yamato is there to snap him out of it. ‘Control yourself!’ he commanded.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto said, “Go find someone else to play with.” Naruto said, without turning around.

“Ah, but there aren’t any nice people here to play with me…” she batted her eyelashes.

Though Yamato screamed distantly, Naruto grabbed that girl again, carried her to the sea, and through her into the sea. “There. You should find plenty of people there.”

As Naruto walked back into the town again coming down from his furious rage, all the while Yamato contemplated what exactly is happening with him, instead of text this time, a voice started to narrate.

So, you find yourself in the streets of Umi, (He tried to block his ears, but the voice won’t go away!) and you see that on your left, there are some abandoned houses nearby, and in front of you there are shops.

“Naruto, ignore the voice. Are you listening this?” Yamato suggested, barely controlling his fear from this strange and creepy place they both have ended up in.

“Listening what?” Naruto finally started to pay attention, all the while ignoring the strange monotoned narrating voice.

“It is as if a loud and rowdy group of drunks is harassing a girl nearby.” Yamato brought his wielder’s attention to the other noises besides the narration which just won’t go away, all the while disapproval for such behavior dripping from his voice.

“Mmm. Now that you mention it…” Naruto however, is unaffected. He might be many things, but a gentle man who would heroically save girls is not one of them.

Meanwhile, the voice continued, you also here some strange noises near to your right.

What would you like to do?

Investigate the houses?

Check out the abandoned shops?

Try to find what are those noises?

Naruto turned to right and started to walk towards those noises.

Arriving there, he found that Yamato was right that a girl was getting harassed.

But it wasn’t any usual group of drunk morons, it is a group of zombies of all things who are after the girl.

Suddenly, he saw the zombies were frozen along with the girl, and everything went to black again.

“This again? I swear I’ll strangle the person when I found them who created such a bullshit—” the text started to scroll once more.

What would you like to do?

Save the girl,

Or

Move on?

Naruto sighed. “Save the girl.” ‘Besides, at least she doesn’t seem to cause any anger within me, and maybe I can get some answers out of her.’ He thought.

As he moved to the fight, the voice started to narrate again.

You’ve chosen to help the girl, for this fight Yamato the demonic sword is locked for you.

Rage, greater and terrible than whatever that girl caused him to feel filled his body at this moment, “!” and he appeared among the zombies who have just started to move again.

Not content with depriving him of his sword, the voice also provided the commentary on his fight.

Though the enemy appeared to be numerous, your rage + 3 causes them more damage. Even their undead statis couldn’t keep them protected from you, as your fists explained them by pulverizing them.

More stragglers appear who were left behind while their faster brethren chased the woman, but your fists proved to be up to the task as you dispatched them all quickly.

Taking few breaths after the fight, you consider your options.

Should you,

Move on, acting like a mysterious hero, sure to be the part of her dreams for many nights to come?

Or,

Should you talk to her?

Naruto snarled, which apparently made that girl take a step back. ‘Fuck!’ the demon cursed after seeing that, ‘Looks like moving on is not an option anymore then.’

You have chosen to talk with the girl. Confidence + 5

Breathing deeply to calm his anger towards the narration, and that voice, and at this place, which at this point pretty much included this whole town, and fixing his expression, he moved towards the girl who was still standing there, rooted on the spot.

“Hello?” he said tentatively, “Are you okay?”

With a jerk, the girl seems to come out of the whatever spell kept her rooted on that spot, and looked at him in relief.

Meanwhile, the demon was grateful that the narrating voice is not here again, since his anger probably would have screwed things off again, and he might decide to torch this entire place with Galick Gun.

“Um… yeah,” she sounded nervous. “Who are you?”

“I am Naruto Uzomaki.” He answered, while taking in the appearance of the girl. (No, there was nothing wrong about it, no matter how Yamato may like to tease him for his narration.)

She seems to be shaken up badly, appears to have some sort of fighting training, but clearly not to fit for a Shinobi, or a sudden crisis of undead.

“I’m sorry,” the girl blushed in embarrassment, “I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Sara Potter, a police officer.” Seeing his baffled look, she rambled on. “Not that it proved to be any useful these past few hours…” she trailed off.

Naruto was baffled, but not because of her profession. “Don’t worry, you seem to be quite shaken up. why don’t you sit somewhere for a minute or so?” he looked around at the blood splattered ground. “Let’s find a clean spot for you, shall we?”

Strangely enough, the demon noted that he himself remained untouched by blood. Even his hands were not bloody, even though this was exactly how he dispatched the zombies.

Walking in a search for a clean spot, the demon got back to his earlier train of thought. He is not baffled by her profession, but her name, is certainly unique. He doesn’t know any human by this name, (And he is sure that she is a human,) and even more baffling than her name is the question how exactly a human ended up in this strange town, in the middle of the Hell?

Even if she somehow ended up finding an old Hell’s gate, she should not be in such a center spot like the fortress of an overlord, located deep within the Hell’s territory.

‘Unless, this is not a hell, and I am at some other place?’ Naruto shook his head at such a possibility. ‘That can’t be right, can it?’

‘Don’t disregard the possibility entirely.’ Yamato told him.

Finding a bench near what looks like a park where the weeds have overgrown for past few months, Naruto was surprised at how strange this sight is, a park aside from overgrown weeds, and a bench, and he himself with a girl, who was recovering in that bench, while he himself sat crossed legged on a nearby flat rock, which appears to be another sitting spot.

But soon enough before he could think of asking any questions, the annoying narrative invaded his sight again, like a pesky promotion for a political agenda that won’t be ignored no matter hard he tries.

What would you like to ask this woman?

1\. Her name and where did she come from?

2\. How did she ended up chased by those dead zombies?

3\. Does she know a way out of here?

‘What do you think Yamato?’ Naruto asked his sword for his opinion.

‘Urg!’ is the unhelping response of Yamato.

Apparently, Yamato was still recovering from the nightmares he suffered after watching those zombies, where he became unresponsive while muttering about imprisonment, undead wielder, and that undead wielder trying to kill his new and alive wielder.

Truth to be told though, Naruto is one-hundred percent with his sword. He is not fond of that temple and mud soldiers and… ‘Better stop thinking about it before I end up like him.’

The demon considers the options given.

‘Let’s see, she might not give me any information if she is feeling unfamiliar with me. She would clam up tighter than a virgin’s… ahem. So, establishing familiarity it is!’ he decides.

“So,” Naruto spoke, finally interrupting the silence. “What’s your name?” Naruto asks, considering it to be a great conversation starter even if the person has introduced themselves to you once already.

Though it should be noted that it won’t work if the said person is not recovering from a shocking event. In the normal case, people take a dim view of constantly asking for their name.

Flinching as the silence was broken so abruptly, the woman answers after composing herself. “I am Sara Potter.” She observes the reaction of Naruto as she tells her name, which puts her on guard.

But the reason for his reaction is that he hasn’t heard any such human name. ‘Not at least in the elemental nations. Maybe they have different names outside…’ the demon concluded.

“Well, you were quite shaken by your encounter it seems.” After his sword nudged him mentally, he remembers, “Oh, my name is Naruto Uzomaki, sorry for not introducing myself earlier.”

As Naruto introduces himself, Sara relaxes a little.

“So, how did you end up here? Or are you native?” the demon asked.

“No, not a native.” Sara finds herself at more and more ease as she spoke with Naruto, at least compared to her earlier frightening. “I was investigating a cult which sacrifices some children for their ritual, and some school administrator was involved in supplying them with the perfect sacrificing material.”

Naruto and Yamato were ranting at each other inside Naruto’s mind about no matter how many people they have killed, tortured, or maimed, they have never done something so evil, they have standards, but Sara didn’t know about it so she continued.

“Apparently that guy didn’t wanted to come with us quietly, so he started to brawl with the officers during which I’ve got separated from my team. After I got out of the school, I found myself in this strange town devoid of people. I went inside of the school thinking I just received a blow on my head or something, but before I could enter, these undead people came at me and attacked me.” She finished telling the events which caused her to end up in this strange town.

“Okay, this might be unrelated, and we’ll get back to the important topic, but what exactly do you mean by ‘Investigating?’ what exactly do you do?”

Naruto does know that there are law enforcements in the feudal lord’s capital, but they don’t seem to be doing any such jobs as this woman has described to him.

“I’m a police officer.” With practiced ease, she brings out her badge, baffling Naruto even more.

‘She doesn’t seem to have any combat training, not even by civilian standards. it just proves that she isn’t like the Uchiha police.’ The demon thought.

“Wait, don’t you have any weapon or anything?” he asked, after all what if a criminal decides to attack her?

Sara blushed and brings out the small thing from her side, apparently, she knows how to hide it.

“And that is supposed to be threatening—”

Bang!

Blood splattered all over Sara’s face, as she didn’t think that Naruto would take the bullet directly.

She screamed, which was quickly interrupted by suddenly whole Naruto. “That was just like Lydia’s weapon.” He said, noting the difference in design and size.

Also, Lydia’s gun, as she called her weapon, did more damage to him than this one.

“Wait, you’re alive?” she asked faintly.

“Of course, I am. A demon won’t die with such a small wound.” Naruto said confidently.

“Anyway, I think getting into that school might be the key to get out of here.” He said, after having enough of Sara’s shocked gaze which didn’t moved from him for several seconds.

“Maybe, but how exactly are we going to enter?” she asked, snapping out of her shock. Besides, ever since she has arrived in this town, she has been seeing one strange thing after another.

“Hmhmhmhm. Why do you worry so much? Didn’t you saw what I did to those undead bastards? I’m sure we’ll manage to get in.” Naruto doesn’t feel any threat for his life from his town.

Now, if he could leave this depressing place, he’ll be golden.

* * *

(One hour later…)

Walking to the school in question, a most unwelcome voice stopped them.

“Oh look, a bad boy with a foolish girl.”  
“A child here? Wait, who are you calling foolish!” Sara exploded.

“You again!” the familiar feeling of rage consumed Naruto once more, and for once Yamato didn’t commented about the narration in his head.

Grabbing her hair, Naruto gave her another spinning face buster, not giving her a chance to annoy him further.

Sara however, disapproved of doing violence on children like that. “I know she called me foolish, but there was no reason for you to do that. If you would have done this in my city, I would have arrested you!”

“Yeah, I would like you to try. Besides, she’s not a normal child.” Naruto snorted. If she is any example of the law enforcement in her city, Naruto doubted that any of them could stop him.

“What?” Sara thundered, “How dare you justify your behavior like that?”

“Well, normal children do not disappear after getting hit.” The demon pointed out.

“What?” she looked at the ground where Naruto slammed the girl, and indeed there was no sign of her there.

‘Given the force he applied, there should have at least be some blood…’ getting unnerved, Sara composed herself and asserted. “Still, you should not hit children.” And started to walk towards the school again.

‘Whatever. She probably doesn’t realize that given enough training and motivation, even a child can kill you.’ besides, Naruto has been training to kill or harm others ever since his childhood.

‘Taking out your childhood frustrations on other children is bad.’ Yamato preached.

‘You’re only saying that because she’s a girl, you oversexed idiot!’ Naruto exploded.

‘Ya got me.’ Yamato is most certainly grinning.

As the mental conversation finishes, they both arrived on the school. “I don’t see any hordes of undead here,” Naruto commented.

“But there was a huge number of them right here, blocking the entrance.” Sara said.

“Hm. maybe they left? Who knows what goes on in the brains of those corpses? Let’s enter, shall we?” the demon decided.

Entering into the school, Naruto sees that it is just like any normal school for civilians, though sometimes they share so many similarities with Shinobi academies that he gets confused.

Everything was quiet as the gravel on the ground crunched beneath their feat being the only noise. “So, I don’t see any entrances around here,” Naruto said, after walking for some time, and not seeing any way to get inside of the school from the ground.

“I think we might need to search. What do you think?” Sara said.

“Probably.” Naruto said, while looking at the sun.

“What do you think about splitting up?” Sara asked.

The time stopped, and the hated narration appeared again.

What do you want to do?

Split up.

Or,

Stay together for the safety.

“Let’s split.” Naruto decided, not wanting to deal with this blackness and the scrolling text.

“Okay, I’ll check out that section,” Sara said while pointing towards the offices of the staph.

“I’ll check the classes then.” After she agreed, the demon leaves.

As Naruto moved to classes, the hated voice provided commentary on the condition of the school, etc. etc. He didn’t care for any of that.

Entering into one of the classrooms at random, Naruto found himself confronted by the same hated options screen.

Would you like to check the room for any clues?

Or,

Move on?

Deciding to check the desks, Naruto didn’t find anything useful, while the voice commented about various miscellaneous things.

Until he noticed a doodle on a book. “Hay Yamato, doesn’t it look like some sort of ritual circle?”

“Hm? now that you mention it…” the blade said, having dismissed it as nothing more than the drawing of a board child earlier.

“Yeah, I have seen the seals like this, mostly in the dimensional manipulation. But the question is, why would a child draw something like that?”

Before Yamato could answer, a shrill scream stopped him. Recognizing the scream of Sara, Naruto left hastily from the classroom. Luckily, it appears that she is still okay, since she seems to be screaming for the help a lot. It helped him tracking her down fast.

Finding her near the locker rooms, Naruto saw a swarm of locusts.

A swarm of locusts so vicious that the likes of which he has never seen before, and a swarm of locusts which doesn’t look like they prefer to chow on nice and easily found green things.

Seeing him arrive, Sara came running to him, bringing the swarm with her.

“Yikes! Don’t you have any manners?” the demon asked her while starting to run from the swarm, “You shouldn’t bring the trouble with yourself for others.”

“It’s not like I told them to come after me!” she said, while following his change of direction for the outside of the school. “Besides they’re too many, I can’t exactly shoot them.”

Arriving on the gates still okay somehow, Naruto turned around and decided to take a stand right there. What kind of overlord will he be if he ran away from a bunch of locusts anyway?

As the buzz of the swarm came closer, Sara urged him to run with her. “Come on, it’s not like you can take them on, don’t be so foolish!”

“Nah, they can’t hurt me.” Naruto said in his most confident tone.

“You’re not invincible.” She said with a frown.

“True, but I still am more durable than you. you should go now; I wouldn’t be able to protect you from them once they come here.” Naruto said, waving her off.

Seeing that the cloud of locusts wasn’t far anymore, Sara decided to heed his advice and run, thinking that not even his corpse would remain recognizable after this.

Seeing the buzzing cloud’s distance getting closer, Naruto brings his palm forward and called, “Fire Blast!”

Nothing happened, aside from the swarm getting even more closer.

Removing his glasses, he calls out. “Hyper Beam! Fire Punch. Water Pulse, anything work dammit!”

“Naruto, do something!” Yamato panicked; he doesn’t wish to be the sword who was devoured by locusts.

“I’m trying! But none of my techniques are working!” the demon is starting to hate this town.

“What? Then try the human ones!” in his panic, Yamato himself doesn’t know what exactly is he screaming.

“But—” Naruto tried to say.

“You don’t have any options, dammit! You won’t be able to slice those with me, not all of them.” Despite that, he persisted with his suggestion.

Grimacing, Naruto made a horse hand sign, and called out, “Fire Style, Great Fire Annihilation!”

As the swarm was just few meters away, a sea of flames came out of Naruto’s lips, and the locusts who were leading were all turned into ashes. The screams of those locusts, sounded like music to his ears, while Yamato is committing every second of this into his memory to find out whether the normal locusts do scream when burned or not.

Many techniques flew everywhere, from dragons made of fire, to lightning barrages, and locusts in the states of fried and charred, fell from the sky.

Ten minutes later, silence was the only thing remained aside from the crackle of the fire resulting from Naruto’s techniques, while the swarm of locusts was a history.

“Now,” he said after gazing at the destruction, “Where did Sara go?”

Getting out of the burning school, it didn’t take long for Naruto to find her, since she arrived there with some people, gawking at the burning school.

“You—you did this?” she asked with breathless disbelief.

“Yep.” Naruto’s behavior is so casual that she starts to think that it is an everyday occurrence with him.

“How could you? I mean how did you do that? you didn’t have a flamethrower last I knew…” she trailed off.

“Hmhmhmhmhm.” He chuckled. “Why would you need a flamethrower when you have a walking, talking, hellraising one, standing right in front of you?”

“—Anyway, I found this place where apparently the residents of this town are sheltering. These are some of them,” she pointed to one of the men who came with Sara, “I think we should go there.”

“Hmm. Are we welcomed there?” Naruto asked, looking at these people distrustfully.

“Anyone under the sun is accepted within his protection, they nearly need to ask him for it.” a middle-aged man answered.

“O…kay?” Naruto wasn’t expecting that response.

‘Yamato, are you getting any strange feelings?’ Naruto asked, since the demon blade is good at detecting those things.

‘Tons. These people are fanatics, be careful.’ Yamato’s reply is rather concerning.

‘How did you know?’ the demon asked curiously.

‘Hmhmhm.’ Yamato chuckled knowingly. ‘When you live as long as I have, you learn to smell the stench from very far.’ The sword explained, dropping his usual easy-going manner entirely.

There are very few times Yamato has done this, ever since he has started to wield him. So, whenever it happens, Naruto gets on his guard immediately.

‘Did you notice that they didn’t even have any weapons?’ Naruto asked, since if he were on their place, he would never leave his weapon, even during sleep.

‘Indeed. In a place like this, I wouldn’t even think about going outside weaponless, and I am a weapon in the first place.’

‘Exactly. Which means they have some sort of way of holding back the horrors of this town.’ Naruto wondered how they would deal with a demon like him.

As the conversation between the sword and the wielder finishes, they arrived at their place of protection.

Naruto observed the building as he was taken inside with Sara. He hasn’t been to many religious places, since the shrines in the Leaf wouldn’t let him enter, claiming him to be a demon, (How right they were,) and these church things didn’t exist anywhere near the Leaf, or indeed in the Land of Fire.

Raikage explained to him once, when he saw a mission about elimination of a group which came to the elemental nations, and more specifically the Land of Lightning, to promote their religion.

All the feudal lords did take a dim view of such attempts, and as such, used every option available to them to strangle this encroaching belief upon their lands. Shinobi were naturally employed most liberally, not only to eliminate the leaders of such movements, but to spread misinformation among the public, so the people themselves would lash out viciously.

So as a result, the churches are a very rare thing to find in the Elemental Nations, and this is the first time Naruto has seen one.

Entering into the large complex like building, (which didn’t feel like the churches he has seen in the maps which Mizukage showed him once,) passed by a large hall, where presumably everyone gathered for the prayers, (That, at least is familiar,) and they were brought into a meeting room of sorts, where apparently the leadership of the town is gathered to see these outsiders who have suddenly appeared, and asked for their protection.

“So,” one of the people on the table at the center of the room said, “These are the people who asked for the protection for the great father?”

Naruto was actually surprised, since the one who asked the question is a woman, and Raikage told him that church doesn’t consider women for the powerful positions.

“You seem to be operating in a misconception.” He spoke, “I don’t need any protection.”

“Oh? And yet your female comrade appears to be looking for one.” The woman said with a tone which most people would call grandmotherly, but Naruto calls condescending.

“Well, that’s her problem.” Naruto said crossing his arms. “Besides, I can turn this entire building into rubble, and just fifteen minutes ago, I reduced a horde of locusts, along with the building where they were coming from, into a burning pile. Ask your people who picked me up from there, if you don’t believe me.”

“Is that true?” one of the men finally spoke, asking the people who went with Sara to bring Naruto here.

“It is true my father, by the time we found him, the building was burning, and there was no swarm of locusts, as the sister Sara told us.” Reported the middle-aged man.

Before one of the leaders can speak again, Naruto asked a question of his own. “So, how did she stumble on to you guys anyway?”

“She was chased by the hordes of undead who are stalking the streets of this town,” the woman answered, “She was brought before us, and mentioned you.”

“This also brings me to my next question. How exactly are you safe from the horrors outside?” Naruto is asking all of these questions, just so he can observe their limits with him.

“Our faith protects us,” the woman, whom Naruto considered to be the de facto leader since she is the one who is doing most of the talking, said serenely.

“Indeed?” Naruto said in a sarcastic tone, ignoring Sara’s attempts of quieting him down, “How wonderful!”

“You do not believe us?” she asked.

“No.” he said flatly. “Never in my experience the problems have been solved so easily.”

“It is understandable,” another one of the men said, who appears to be older than everyone else in the leaders. “You seem to have led a hard life. But soon enough, you will understand the power of the almighty father.”

“Yeah, no. do you know a way out of this town?” the demon expressed his disinterest in understanding any such powers.

This question caused an immediate silence within the room.

“There’s only one way, but you might not return alive.” The woman answers finally.

“And that way is?” ‘Given the silence, they likely consider it to be a dangerous way.’ He thought.

“There’s a hospital,” the woman said, “Pass me a map, would you?” she asked one of the underlings who brought Naruto with them.

“The hospital is located here,” she pointed the location on the map. “You must enter the hospital, and then you would find a patient there.”

“What? You left a patient there in this madness? I might be evil, but even I’ll won’t do something like that.” Naruto finally has a reason to look down on these righteous fools.

Something shifted within the body language of that woman. “That girl is no patient.” She said in a frosty tone. “Once you kill her, you will find the way out of here. And who knows? Maybe this madness would end too.”

Right in this moment, the annoying options were in front of Naruto’s eyes.

Would you like to investigate the hospital?

Or,

Stay in the church for the rest of your life?

Or,

Find some another way?

Sighing, Naruto selected the investigation of hospital. “Can I take the map?” he asked the woman once the time resumed.

“You may.” She smiled generously, but Naruto considers it a dangerous smile.

* * *

(Outside of the church.)

“What were you thinking?” Sara chided him, “Don’t you have any idea that they might have decided to throw us out if you offended them too much?”

“Look. It’s not my concern. I can survive outside, you can’t. besides, I’m leaving to see what’s wrong with this hospital, and this girl, so you don’t have to bother with me anyway.” Naruto noted how Sara sounds familiar for some reason, but he couldn’t match her voice.

“Just be careful, okay?” she said worryingly.

“Sure.” giving her a grin, Naruto departed.

As he walked on the streets consulting the map time to time, and ignoring the ramblings of the narration, he noticed that the sun was just about to go down.

“Strange, I didn’t think that we spent too much time in there…”

“Yeah, Naruto, there is something wrong with those people.”

‘Tell me something. They all felt like humans, but humans wouldn’t have survived in this town for long, faith or not. And yet, they seem to be just fine, no stress, no tension, no sign of malnutrition, it is as if they were expecting something like that, and made preparations accordingly.’ Naruto thinks that it is best that this conversation takes place mentally.

‘But even if you make preparations, how exactly do you keep the population of a town fed? I can understand for few months, but…’ Yamato gave his own thoughts.

‘Exactly. Other thing which I noticed, there weren’t any children, none at all.’ Naruto remembers, even if there weren’t any children, he should have heard their voices.

‘What, did they kill them or something?’ Yamato considers the possibility.

‘Who knows? But it is freaky.’ Naruto didn’t want to contemplate anymore.

‘Look whose saying that?’ Yamato ribbed.

Arriving on the hospital in question, Naruto found it to be empty.

“You know what’s worse than a hospital?” Naruto asked Yamato.

“What?”

“A hospital which is abandoned.” Naruto gave the answer.

Naruto never liked the hospitals. With their smell of disinfectants, which barely hides the smell of death, overly fussy staph, and probably because Sakura worked there, which killed his hot nurse or doctor fantasies.

Entering into the hospital, the annoying narration begins again. causing the eyebrows of Naruto to twitch.

You come into the hospital, creeped out by the silence. All the while wondering why didn’t you encountered anything in your way.

“well I wasn’t thinking about that, but thanks for spelling that out.” Naruto said while gritting his teeth, as he moves to the lobby of the hospital.

Entering through the lobby, you find yourself in a corridor, where there are two paths. One leads to the rooms further, while other one leads to the stairs.

You try to find a lift or something, (Why spend unnecessary energy?) and surprisingly you managed to found one.

You enjoy your ride to the third floor where the room of this mysterious patient is located, since this is the first lift ride you ever had.

Elemental nations decided to done away with lifts, since it was way too damn easy for a ninja to cut the cables, and make lots of people plummet to their deaths.

You open the door, and find yourself surrounded by the hordes of undead, standing like statues, creeping you out. As you prepare to attack them, expecting them to rush at you any moment, you find to your surprise that they started to kill each other.

“Well, if you do want to make my job easier, who am I to argue?”

You proceeded towards the room from the middle of the battle, where undead were tearing each other from limb to limb, and yet aside from the sound of blows, they weren’t making any noise of grunt or scream.

You open the door of the room, and find a person laying on the only bed there. The room seems to be in a very clean state, despite the abandoned state of the hospital, and the craziness outside.

You get close to the person, and when you get close enough to recognize them… “You!” interrupted this fine and wonderful narration.

The patient in the bed is a child, a girl who you have killed twice in some unexplainable rage. And yet, she is still here, fine without a scratch, smiling at you.

“Finally got here?” she asked.

“How? How are you alive?” Naruto asked in an incredulous voice.

‘Cough, cough, don’t you feel something is missing?’ Yamato pointed mentally.

‘Wait what?’ Naruto was jarred from the real conversation outside, ‘Now that you mention it, I don’t feel that rage towards her.’

“Looks like there’s someone smarter with you. Good, you’ll need his help.” She spoke.

The remarks failed to get a rise out of Naruto, and he asked his next question. “Why did I feel such a rage towards you?”

“Probably the effect of the will here.” She said in a monotone.

“A will?”

“You don’t have the senses refined enough to sense it, but it is there.” She replied to Naruto’s remark, because she thought she heard a question mark in his reply.

“Whose Will exactly is it?” he asked, already planning to have some words with that person. There may or may not be some stabbing involved.

“That is simple to answer. The people in the church where you came from.”

“Hmhmhmhm. I knew something was wrong there. But why did they say that there’s a way out of here?” there were still few pieces remaining missing for Naruto to understand all of the situation.

“They lied. You’re just another pawn in their plan to contain my soul.” For the first time, Naruto sensed some anger from the girl.

“Soul? So, this is why you survived, huh.”

“Yes, I can move around the town in my soul form, but I can’t move physically from here.” She said her frustration barely noticeable in her voice.

“Hmm. Well Yamato? You know what happens to the people who try to use us as pawns, don’t you?” Naruto asked with a nasty grin.

“They get crushed like insects.” Yamato expressed the feeling with crushing words.

“Still, just because you kill them you won’t get out of here.” The girl said, pausing the murderous plans.

“Probably. But I would feel so much better afterwards…” Naruto is already looking forward to their screams.

“You don’t understand. Unless you take me out of here, you won’t escape this place.” She explained.

“And how exactly am I supposed to believe you?” the demon looked at her distrustfully, just like he looked at the people of that church.

“Because I will explain what exactly is this place, who are those people, and why did I end up here like this.”

Sitting on the nearby chair, the demon reclined and told her to start explaining. “Well then, you can start anytime you like.”

She begins to tell the story. “This entire territory was ruled by the overlord, but he was beaten by another overlord so badly that he decided to hide in his castle.”

‘What a wuss.’ Naruto thought.

As if she heard his comment, she gave him a knowing look, and continued to tell the story. “Fearing that some another demon might come to challenge him, he made an illusion around this fortress, and made sure that any challenger who came to fight him would be trapped in this illusion. But some other being actually took over this illusion for their own purpose, and fearing his own illusion, the overlord remains hiding in his fortress to this day, even after two thousand years.”

‘Some another being?’ Naruto thinks, already hating this being before even meeting them.

‘Let’s just hope they are easily dealt with.’ Yamato muttered.

“But the demons kept coming to challenge the overlord, and getting trapped in this illusive reality. losing their powers, and becoming no stronger than a normal human, these people devised a ritual to sacrifice a child to open the door back to the Hell, and escape from this reality.”

“And you were the girl they decided to sacrifice?” Naruto asked, she didn’t look like a prime sacrificial material to him.

“Indeed. I was used to be a demon too, until one day I stumbled upon this reality, and ended up as a sacrifice. The ritual they devised failed, and they all fled to the church where the town’s horrors cannot reach them. I remained to be trapped here, but I did manage to learn how to project myself outside of this room.”

“Hmm. Is this where they performed the ritual?”

“Yes. It is still preserved perfectly to this day if you want to see it.” the girl said while pointing at the center of the room.

Getting up from the chair, Naruto observed the circle lined with various markings. “Fools! No wonder they failed. none of these seals are drawn properly, it is a miracle that anyone survived at all.”

He slowly took a step back from the thing, as if it might decide to activate any moment now. During his studies of seals, he made many mistakes, many of which resulted in a large explosion. But he never fucked up on such a large scale.

“So, you said that I will have to take you out of here?”

“Yes. Once that happens, the residual power which I have gathered from the ritual should help me in dismantling this illusion.”

“Hm. why don’t I try to escape with Yamato?” Naruto asked with a smirk.

“Ah, the legendary sword. It won’t work, you still are in Hell. In a reality made with illusion, but still Hell.” She shot down the idea.

“Well then. If you don’t mind? I have some people to kill.” Naruto asked her indirectly whether she is ready to leave or not.

* * *

(In the church.)

While Sara was waiting for Naruto, since these people remained to be unknown, even though they offered their protection to her, the leadership of the church didn’t expect him to return at all.

So, it came as a surprise, when the gates of the complex were kicked open, and Naruto walked into the room of the council of elders.

“You…” chatty woman from before said, lost for words. “You survived?”

“Naturally. I ahem. Also have a gift for you people.” Naruto barely controlled his grin. He couldn’t wait for the screams of pain.

“What?” all the members of church asked.

The girl from the hospital walked in, causing the blood to leave their faces. “How? How did you manage to take her out?” they asked, expressing their outrage.

“Easily.” His answer angered them even more.

Losing the cool, the elders lost their patience, and called out to everyone in the complex. “No matter. we’ll still sacrifice you for our freedom, and you’ll die with that girl!”

“Oh, you poor fools.” Naruto said while summoning Yamato, “I have my demon powers back.”

He punctuated this statement by firing a Death Beam to one of the men who were rushing him, while he began to cut them down in droves.

Five minutes later, the entire bottom floor was painted with blood, and no one was alive in the building aside from Naruto. “Wait, where’s Sara? Please don’t tell me I killed her by mistake?”

“No, you didn’t,” she said from behind him, “What – what are you?” she started to tremble after realizing that she has drawn his attention.

“A demon.” Turning to the girl next to him, “Now, mind breaking the illusion?”

“It is done.” She answered, as the building started to disappear.

Soon, the town, the beach, everything else followed, but Naruto had one last thing to do.

Slash!

He cut off the girl’s head. “That is for all the stupid options, you bitch!”

“Um…” Sara said horrified.

Slash!

Moving quickly, he cut her head too. “And that is for all the stupid narration! You couldn’t keep it consistent, it just kept disappearing!”

Naruto, of course, after talking with both Sara, and the girl from the hospital, recognized the voices, since they sounded familiar for some reason, but he was unable to put his finger on it.

Once he realized whose voices these were, he decided that he’ll cut their heads off before leaving this reality.

As the demon walked away, the girl from the hospital started to laugh in amusement. “Just be glad that we didn’t used the command line interface. You would have been truly screwed then.”

Meanwhile, a man appeared within the crumbled illusion, and both females regenerated. “So,” he asked, sounding like a divine person, “What do you think?”

Both of them exchanged looks among them, and the girl decided to answer. “To be honest my lord? He is too brash and unfocussed. Unless his goals align with ours, I don’t see him doing anything good.”

“Maya is right my lord. I also don’t think that he is fit for the task.” The woman who played the role of Sara said.

“Hmmm. Still, he is the only one which fits the requirements, only one to appear in these last billion years in this universe.”

* * *

(With Naruto.)

Pretty miffed by his experiences in the illusion, Naruto kicked open the door of the room, after he entered into the fortress, which was decorated with golden sculls, which were still grinning for some reason.

“How gaudy. Now where is that bastard?” the demon is in the mood of torching some people.

“Hmhmhmhmhmhmhm. Two thousand years of isolation, and bastard is what I am called first?”

Naruto sees how a giant figure unfolded from a big thrown located in the room, which also have sculls on it for some reason.

Naruto observed this figure. Judging from the voice, he is clearly male, but even taller than the first Raikage, who Naruto saw in his old pictures being able to tower over the fourth, and clearly few inches taller than the third.

As he walked towards Naruto, the pads on his shoulders and knees clinked, while Naruto observed the helmet, which also has scull like design on it.

‘No wonder that this entire place is riddled with them.’

Looking down on Naruto from his towering height, he said in his deep booming voice, “I am Shao Kahn! Overlord of the Hell. Who are you!”

After the booming tirade was done, and Naruto got his hearing back, he introduced himself.

“Naruto Uzomaki, the new and latest, and improved overlord.” He puffed his chest.

“Hahahahahahahahahaa! Amusing. I can’t believe that in my absence the standards have fallen so low. I have to fix that when I get out.” Shao Kahn however, remained unimpressed.

“Who said you’re getting out of here?” Naruto asked, challenge in his voice.

“Hmhmhm. Boy, you have no idea of whom you are dealing with. The illusion is gone, which I assume is your doing, which proves you have some talent. You should join my side, otherwise,” summoning his big hammer he finished his threat, “You’ll parish like so many of the fools!”

Naruto also called Yamato, fully ready to engage with him. “You’re ready?” he asked Yamato.

“Indeed. Go all out, finish him!” Yamato said, not wanting to hold back anything.

“Hmm? The legendary sword Yamato. How interesting that you managed to find it, it has been lost throughout my rule. Once more, you prove your resourcefulness. Still sure you don’t want to join me?” he offered as an example of generosity.

Looking him directly in his eyes, Naruto said firmly, “I vowed to myself long ago, when serving others have given me nothing but pain and rejection, that I will never serve anyone else.”

Unlike the previous time when Shao Khan declared Naruto a fool for not taking his offer, he said with an understanding voice. “Very well then.”

He charged at Naruto, instantly appearing before him, trying to shoulder tackle him, which Naruto barely avoided. His speed made Naruto think that he teleported the short distant between them.

Naruto still managed to dodge his next attack when he fired energy beams from his eyes, or the follow up when he fired lasers from his hands. But by this point he is cornered, and so he was not able to attack another shoulder tackle of Shao khan, after which he was sent flying curtesy of a green glowing uppercut.

“Fuuuuuuck!” he cursed while crashing to the opposite side of the room, so great was the force.

“hahahahahahahahahaaaah!” Kahn laughed, apparently having fun.

Naruto sent a fire blast, which was blocked by the green glowing barrier, he tried the Death Beam, which also failed to pierce the protection of Shao Kahn. But he didn’t have a chance of charging a Hyper Beam, since the ancient overlord was already upon him, sending him flying with just one swing of his large hammer.

Crashing through the wall of the throne room, Naruto fell down outside in the open area, he got up while coughing some blood. ‘Those hits are…’

‘Brutal.’ Yamato finished for him.

As Shao Kahn was posing and taunting him, Yamato and Naruto took a breather. But soon enough, he was coming at him, punctuated by the warning of Yamato, “Look out!”

The next strike of the Hyper Beam didn’t connect, and Naruto fired a half form water pulse at Shao Kahn’s face to get some space.

But after shaking his head to get rid of the water, he sent Naruto flying once more with a knee strike, and fired several light spears at him.

All of them missed except for one, which managed to impale Naruto’s shoulder, but soon enough the injury healed in front of Shao Kahn’s amazed eyes.

“I’ll give you that boy, you have stood much longer against me than I thought, and your healing capabilities are truly impressive.” He praised.

Appearing above the fallen Naruto, he finishes. “That is not enough to defeat me!”

He tried to stomp his head, but Naruto rolled away in the time, and then teleported in a flash of gold. Appearing right behind his back, Naruto tried to slice Shao Kahn, but he turned around, and blocked the strike with the gauntlet of his right arm.

He struck the demon with the hammer, and then uppercut the airborne Naruto, sending him back to the throne room right at the door where Naruto entered.

‘Any ideas?’ Naruto questioned Yamato.

‘What’s one technique which is guaranteed to kill him with one hit?’ Yamato asked.

‘None in particular come to mind…’ Naruto said, while his entire body screams in pain.

‘Oh, like you can’t absorb the soul, and end it that way?’ the sword reminded sarcastically.

‘Ah yes, now to get the perfect moment—’

“Now, it is your end boy!” Kahn said while punting Naruto off his door.

As he taunts and laughs, “Hmhmhmhm. Pointless.” Naruto took that moment to strike.

Teleporting in front of him, he stabbed Yamato through Shao Kahn’s chest, who was absolutely not ready for such retaliation.

Taking advantage of his shocked state, Naruto went to his released form, and tried to extract Shao Kahn’s soul. But the overlord was not willing to let go so easily, and the struggle for his soul ensued. glowing from the effort, after a one final scream from Shao Kahn, Naruto pulled the soul out, and began to absorb his power.

But something which Naruto never anticipated happened, Shao Kahn has not just his own soul, but there are millions of souls within him, all of them who are now trying to tear him apart in an effort to get out of this prison.

“…!” screaming dew to the pain, and since it also allowed him to focus on subduing these souls, Naruto started to draw the strength of these souls in the addition of the strength of the Shao Kahn’s which he has already absorbed.

As more and more power came his way, the easier it became to handle these souls, and after fifteen minutes of struggle, he finally got done with them all, falling to the floor in the exhaustion.

Meanwhile the body of the Shao Kahn, once the overlord of Hell, was laying in pieces, and the cloud of souls whose strength Naruto absorbed, is now fleeing this place, among them Shao Kahn’s soul is unrecognizable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back in the summer of 2020, India was invaded by a swarm of locusts during the height of the lockdown. Ever since, I decided that I'll include locusts within my story as well.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31.

A generic chapter.

AKA: The Author couldn’t think of anything.

(With the Summon Alliance.)

As the elders of this alliance of summons watch their losses mounting, while the demons are not showing any sign of slowing down, some of them started to get demoralized.

“This is insanity!” the three headed bosses of the dog clan said in frustration, “We’re getting slaughtered by these demons, for what? Just because of the three clans appealed us to interfere with Uzomaki?”

“Don’t forget that there are people in your clan who support this operation!” Orochi thundered.

“Sure. but that doesn’t mean that every canine on my clan agrees with them. besides, as far as I remember, Uzomaki has been neutral, but now he probably would look upon us as a threat, especially because of those flying lizard morons!” the boss was not backing down in the slightest.

“You know what? I really don’t see why should we participate in a war of three clans, it is not like they treat us with respect anyway.” An owl said.

“Very true,” a huge bee queen, protected by the guards of her hive buzzed in agreement. “It is also very illogical for us to antagonize an overlord, whatever the disagreements the humans may have with him.”

As one by one the members of the alliance started to give voice of the similar thoughts, Fukasaku stepped up, and tried to beseech them for their continued support.

“Look, I get that, it is not easy for us to sit here and watch our clan members be killed so easily. There was a reason why we didn’t come to the demon land before. But I need you to pay careful attention to this, the current overlord is a very big threat.”

“Why?” they all asked.

“Because he is active in the human world. not only he is active there, he has active support there, and he also has the means to get into the human world and back, whenever he wished. If we didn’t stick here, we might not have another chance.” Fukasaku explains.

“Especially since he would be weaker from his battle with the overlord trapped in the fortress.” Shima, another elder of the toad clan added.

The summon bosses nodded grudgingly when presented with those arguments, but some of them planned to pull out if it continues further.

* * *

(With Naruto.)

After the cloud of souls dispersed, Naruto woke up after two hours of unconsciousness.

“Rise and shine!” welcomed Yamato from his sleep brightly.

“Ug. Why do I feel as if I have gone drinking last night?” Naruto said with a pained tone which only those can manage who are experiencing a truly wonderful headache.

“Who knows? Do you have an urge to kill yourself?” the demon blade asked.

“No not really. Still, I am lucky that the backlash was not even worse than that.” the demon thanked his lucky stars.

“Hm. well, I do hope you’re ready for the party outside.” The sword reminded.

“Hmhmhmhmhm.” Naruto chuckled, while getting up from the floor of the destroyed thrown room, “Trust me. either they’ll run, or face… the complete annihilation!”

* * *

(Outside.)

Right in the middle of the battle, a strange cloud of souls descended upon the battlefield, halting the war for a while.

Of course, as the cloud passed, and a Naruto who was looking around from the top of the steps of the fortress was scene, the battle began anew.

Meanwhile, Jin Wuya gave a nice cheer along with his father and the soldiers of his clan, since their mission of containing the summons here turned out to be a complete success.

Except for those flying monkeys, and the dragons who have various creatures on their backs, and what’s that? they are trying to seal him again? and Naruto is just standing there, letting them do that?

“Please don’t tell me he is done with his life already…” the cyborg muttered next to Lydia.

But Naruto has some other things in mind. He was just preparing to open the door to Earth, that suddenly he was surrounded again, and the stupid animals tried to put him in a seal… again.

“Didn’t you tried this earlier? It’s not gonna work!”

Without using any demon technique, or any of the elemental arts, or any counter seal of his own, Naruto blasted the sealing formation around himself just by his energy alone.

“Since you love to get in my way so much, here’s something to consider.” He prepared a beam in a shape of a gun, before Naruto could pull the trigger, all the soldiers of the Golden Crows promptly left the field.

When he fired the beam, it exploded in the middle of the army which was retreating rapidly. As the smoke cleared, the summon alliance was devastated, and the door which Naruto opened to the Earth was closing behind him.

* * *

(With Mizukage and Raikage.)

Both the Kages were receiving the reports from their spies from the Land of Moon. There was a big talk of the king who is making the officers who suggests to him not to rely on the Leaf so much, while in reality, those military officers are being disappeared by the assassins of the Storm Cloud Alliance.

This of course, is done so the Leaf could not rely on Land of Moon, for any kind of support, leading them to put more resources, and Shinobi for their defense.

As Raikage puts the report down, a knock sounds over the door of the office which they were sharing, and Mizukage said to enter.

Yugito and B, the only two Jinchurikis of the tailed beasts in the elemental nations walked in, saluting the Kages.

“So, why did you called us bro?” the rapper asked.

Or more like Yugito saluted, while B rapped.

Controlling the twitching in his finger to give his younger brother a piece of Iron Claw, the Raikage explains why they have been called here.

“Soon enough, the covert operations would be done, and the direct conflict on the Land of Moon will begin.” A said. “Both of you have been called here to take your orders for the battle.” 

“We have decided that you shouldn’t enter into the battle if we are not suffering any big losses,” the Mizukage takes over the explanation. “Because of the Leaf’s sealing capabilities, which are quite formattable even with the death of Jiraiya, we would like to keep you safe unless we need you.”

“So, unless you order us into the battle, we’re essentially sitting in the sidelines?” Yugito said, not liking it.

“Yes. But you are welcome to make your contribution during the strategy sessions, since both of you are veterans.”

Yugito might have protested about such orders just few months ago. But she remembered Naruto’s brutal speech right before he left to destroy Akatsuki. So just like B, she didn’t complain, and nodded at the orders, and left.

* * *

(Hidden Leaf, Hyuga compound.)

Hinata Hyuga, the current head of the Hyuga clan, is contemplating the meeting which took place two days ago. Walking in the garden which she often visited as a nervous child, she thought about the possibility of someone helping that demon from her clan.

By this point, it was very obvious to the people around Hinata, that she did not took the rejection of Naruto that well. Of course, they only knew of one rejection. Hinata honestly thought, that taking initiative like that, and telling him all about that in that prison sell, would finally get her the attention she has wanted from him for so long.

But the demon, very quickly proved her wrong. The way he knocked her out… she never recovered from it.

‘Not to mention, just what exactly Neji did when I was unconscious? He got away from that too smoothly.’

‘Hmmm. Only one way to confirm my suspicions.’ She smiles.

* * *

(In the demon world, with the Hell’s council.)

While Naruto’s forces managed to hold off the alliance of the summons, now they have an entirely different challenge in front of them.

Trying to argue their case in front of politicians. They have been banging their heads against the Brik wall for past three hours, and Jin Wuya is now thinking to use the Brik Break to splatter the faces of these pretenders of demon species.

“Look, overlord or not,” the same line is repeated by another member of the council, of whose name Jin Wuya didn’t bothered, nor care to remember, “But I believe we are owed an explanation of why such an unprecedented attack by the summons on our soil.”

‘Ugggggggg!’ the crow fumed silently. ‘Just get in here Naruto, I would slaughter these wastes of spaces otherwise, planning be damned.’

* * *

(With Naruto, on the human world.)

Whistling quite contently, Naruto approached the Leaf.

“Seriously, given how you left this place… twice, I don’t get why you keep coming back here again and again.” Yamato said, exasperated.

“What can I do? This place is the focus of so many important events.”

“Or maybe you have such a hard-on for this place?” the sword would have waggled his eyebrows, if he had any.

“Well now that you mention it, Jiraiya was kind of right. You can’t find the beauties quite like home.”

“A home which you left destroyed.” Yamato reminded.

“So? It is my home. I can do whatever I want with it.”

“Things don’t work like that.” Yamato sighed.

After Naruto went through the process of security, with fake papers, invasive procedures to check whether he is transformed or not, even more invasive procedures to check whether he has physically disguised himself or not, Naruto finally entered the Leaf.

‘Hm. recovered nicely; wouldn’t you say?’ the demon looked at the recently rebuilt Leaf with less than pure intentions.

‘Well, being a military base and all…’ Yamato trailed off.

‘And I’m sure that fool of a feudal lord was probably bullied to supply them with resources and materials.’

‘Yeah, mind telling me why we are here?’ the sword asked bluntly.

‘There’s this guy… whom I need to track down.’

‘Oh great. for a moment I thought… you know what? It doesn’t really matter.’

‘What, what did you thought?’ the demon asked curiously.

‘Nothing. say, why don’t you just transform into Sasuke, cause bunch of problems, and blame it all on him?’ Yamato suggested quickly.

A devious grin stretched across Naruto’s face. ‘You my sword, are on to something.’

(End.)

* * *

(Omake.)

Naruto sighed as he closed the door behind him. He walks even further within the strange house of Eagle, which by its size should not be able to support so many rooms, and a studio.

‘I think it expands and shrinks as necessary.’ Shaking his head at such a thought, he opened the door of a random room, hoping to relax for a while.

That fight scene with Shao Kahn was very exhausting for both of them. Luckily, Hatori gave them time off, since it’ll take a while to edit the scene and start the shooting once more.

That, and according to him, no need to worry about the episodes so much since there are enough of them to air for two or three months.

“Just my luck.” He mutters, after seeing how there is no bed or chair in the room.

However, in the very next moment, a chair appeared out of nowhere, freaking out the demon.

But since the chair is here now, might as well sit down. ‘No need to disrespect whatever runs this house.’

Naruto has a feeling that it is not Hatori.

And speaking of him, he walked in the room just when Naruto thought about him.

He seems to be looking at a wall, covered with a large banner which has many signatures on it, though it was empty at the top.

He also detected soul fluctuation from those signatures much to his surprise.

“I see you found my room of signatures.” He conjures a chair and reclined on it because the chair violated the shape of a chair.

“I was just looking for some place to relax.” Naruto said, no need to anger the producer of their show which seems to be giving a new life to their career.

“Hmm. Probably opened the first door. You are not the first who lost their way in this house.” He guessed correctly. “If you like, I can send you to your room…” he trailed off.

“I’m fine here. Besides, we still do need to shoot the episode after the fight with Shao Kahn.”

“Don’t worry, that episode would be short. There’s nothing much to do aside from laying the foundation for the future events.”

“I got it.” Seeing him stand up, Naruto asked in hurry. “If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly is this banner?”

Naruto has never heard of such names like Donald Knuth, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson. If it weren’t for his reputation, the demon would have guessed that these are people who are very ordinary, and have nothing to do with the multiverse.

He takes a look of the banner. “These are all the people whom I admire. I retrieved their souls, and asked them to give their signature, you might feel some soul fluctuation as a result from these signatures.” He explained while walking up to the banner, and looking at the empty spots.

He turned around, and muttered. “Though I never have guts to retrieve their souls and ask for their signature.”

Hatori left, and closed the door softly behind him. Naruto looked at the two empty spots.

He didn’t saw any words above the empty spots before, but now he looks at those, it makes a lot of sense. “Mother and father. What a sentimental guy.” He chuckles.

(End omake.)


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32.

It wasn’t me, honest!

(With Neji, on an ANBU training ground.)

Being a Jonin has its perks, one of which is the access to the training grounds of ANBU, where a Jonin, content in the fact that no one would be able to observe them, can practice their most secret maneuvers in peace.

Of course, they are absolutely forbidden from bringing anyone below the rank of Jonin, even from the Leaf. So Neji decided to do exactly that.

Besides, where else he is supposed to train this little monster?

‘She learned the Air Palm, vacuum Palm, upgraded from Thirty-two palms to Sixty-four Palms, what exactly am I supposed to teach her now?’ while the Jonin is busy thinking these thoughts, the little monster, also known as Hanabi, completed the latest sixty-four palms, adding a twirl in her last strike, just because she could do so.

Snorting at the display, Neji is immediately on guard when he heard the clapping.

‘No one is supposed to be here…’ he activated his Byakugan, to spot the intruder.

But the person did not stay hidden for long, since they stepped out in the clearing by themselves, and Neji face palmed after seeing just who exactly is the intruder is.

“What a wonderful display of skills!” he complimented Hanabi, who looks to be happy by seeing Naruto there.

‘She looks too damn happy in my opinion.’ Neji thought, “Please tell me you weren’t followed?” he asked with a long-suffering sigh.

“Ah, come on buddy, you know me better than that, don’t you?” Naruto asked with a pout.

“Unfortunately.” The older Hyuga deadpanned.

Naruto looked at Hanabi, and pointed towards Neji, as if asking her for an explanation silently.

“Ignore him, he’s just not getting enough sleep.” She answered flippantly.

The amusement from Naruto’s face fled after hearing that. “Well to assure you, I have been not followed here.”

“Oh good.” The Jonin breathed a sigh of relief.

“But seriously, those were some really impressive moves.” Yamato chimed in.

Before Neji started to look around in panic, Naruto assured him. “It’s just Yamato, don’t worry about it.” While Hanabi was not panicking since she already knew Yamato from the brief time when Naruto was with her for the mission.

Instead, she is soaking his praise, by squaring her shoulders, and pushing her chest out.

“Let’s perform an experiment.” Naruto said with a grin.

“Please run,” Yamato said, “Nothing good happens when he says those words.”

Ignoring Yamato, Naruto aimed his index finger at the targets. “Now, watch carefully.” He instructed to Hanabi, and blew a hole in the training dummy which is standing at some distance.

“Oooooh.” She watched the display excitedly. “So, when can I do that?”

“Right now, if you wish.” The demon smiled at her excitement.

Neji felt as if there is some problem with his hearing. “Naruto, you can’t be serious. It is clearly a demonic technique, you don’t think she would be able to perform it, do you?”

“Well, I did perform Fire Blast on Sasori when I was a human, soooo…”

“Yes. And you had absurd amount of Chakra.” The Hyuga felt it necessary to point this out.

“At least let her try, it’s not like it’ll harm her.” Naruto apparently didn’t see any problem in this small trial.

Neji subsided with some grumbling.

After some instructions of how she should focus, Hanabi is now standing in front of the same dummy, trying to make another hole right next to the one which Naruto made for his demonstration earlier.

“Call it out loudly, it’ll help you in focusing.” The demon said helpfully.

“Okay. Death Beam!” the girl followed the instructions perfectly, while calling out the name of the technique.

Nothing happened.

A breeze ruffled Neji’s hair.

Nothing happened.

“Mphmhahahahahaha!” Neji broke out in laughter, disrupting the silence.

“Be quiet, would you? This is no way to encourage someone.” Naruto chastised.

“Nah,” the girl didn’t mind the laughter, “This probably is the funniest thing he has seen in past few days.”

‘He needs help.’ Yamato told Naruto mentally.

‘I know that. But until he comes with me, I can’t help him.’ Naruto is very distressed regarding the life of his friend.

Hanabi gave the Death Beam few more tries, before she decided that the technique is not working for her at all.

But Naruto was not willing to let go of the experiment so easily. Putting his hand to his chin, the demon hummed while thinking. Then the inspiration strikes him.

“I have it!” he said loudly, while jumping from the sudden inspiration.

“What?” both Hyugas asked.

“Why don’t you try some hand signs?” suggested Naruto.

“Hmm. That could in theory, work.” Neji nodded at the suggestion.

“So, we need to go over the hand signs one by one?” Hanabi asked.

“Nah. Just use the dragon sign.” The demon waved the idea of long chain of hand signs off.

“Why that one?” Neji asked.

“The technique she’s going to try is not your standard human Chakra technique. Dragons, are also pretty non-standard creatures.” Naruto gave his reasoning.

“You say this in a world where there are giant toads. Anyway, but that is just belief, isn’t it? It shouldn’t affect the technique.” Neji tilted his head in confusion.

“And this is where you’re wrong. Belief is important. Why do you think that the certain signs are associated with certain elements?”

“Hm. like tiger, and dog?” the Jonin considered.

“Yes. If the belief was not important, then they wouldn’t have been associated with water and fire.” Naruto nodded at the train of Neji’s thoughts.

“Can I try it now?” Hanabi asked, board with this discussion of theory.

Naruto hmphed. “Children these days, no patience for learning the deeper things. All they like are the pretty explosions.” Naruto assumed the pose of a grumpy elder while saying this.

As Hanabi went in front of the dummy again, Neji began to show more signs of life, as he started to argue with Naruto. “And look who’s talking?”

Ignoring the chatter of those two, Hanabi focused, made the dragon hand sign, and called out, “Death Beam!”

A beam much thinner than Naruto’s version, but much more sharp looking flew from her hands, and made another hole in the dummy.

Both Naruto and Neji clapped for her, and patted her on her shoulders, and now they were inspecting the damage. “Look how smoothly it passed through the wood?” Naruto pointed, “Mine is not as smooth as her.”

Emboldened by his success in this experiment, Naruto thought that he would teach Hanabi one of the lightning techniques which he has recently learned. He should confirm her nature before that of course, and then—

Sensing someone approaching, Naruto disappeared from the clearing. Since both Hyugas were inspecting the damage, they saw who was approaching them, and Naruto’s disappearance as well. So, they were not surprised when the man from the Hyuga clan came there.

“Commander Neji, lady Hinata has called you for the gathering of the Hyuga clan.” Said the messenger Hyuga, with the trademark Hyuga stoniness.

Tilting his head, a little, Neji sees that the man still hasn’t activated his Byakugan, and so he didn’t see Hanabi, who in the meantime, is hiding behind one of the undamaged dummies.

“Let’s go then. It is not polite to keep a lady waiting, now is it?”

Neji left with the man, leaving Hanabi on the ground. Whatever reason is for this meeting, he suspects that it is no place for Hanabi to be there.

* * *

(With Naruto, on the streets of Leaf.)

Disappearing as soon as the Hyuga clan member appeared, who arrived to take Neji with him, Naruto is now walking in the streets of Leaf whistling, observing the repairs which have been done nicely.

‘Man, they do work fast, don’t they?’ Naruto repeated the same thoughts as before.

As for why exactly isn’t he getting mobbed by Leaf’s forces, this is because he has taken the form of one Sasuke Uchiha, whom Shinobi and civilians both consider to be the apple of their eyes.

Also, he couldn’t believe the number of girls looking his way discretely. ‘Hahahahahaha! If only he would have taken advantage of this before, such a wonderful playboy he would have made.’

‘Yeah,’ Yamato agreed, ‘He probably wouldn’t have gone mad from those pent-up feelings. You know what I mean?’

‘Totally get ya man!’

Arriving on a park near the academy, Naruto sat himself on an empty bench. Soon enough though, the kids recently released from their classes surrounded him promptly.

Judging by their ages, all of them are from the first and second years. Naruto observed the sun, ‘It has been not long. Don’t tell me that the bastards shortened the classes? I’ll kill them for that!’

Naruto was most upset since in his time, the classes were really long.

Or he felt that way. ‘Yeah, like you wouldn’t do that anyway. Besides, you only felt that way.’ Yamato, of course, knew that truth.

All these seven- and eight-years old kids looked at him adoringly, which caused a feeling of proudness in Naruto, (Which was undeserved,) and melted his heart.

‘Ah, look at them Yamato, these kids admire me. How cute are they, I can’t believe I was that small once.’ Naruto shed an imaginary tear.

‘They don’t admire you, only the face which you’re wearing.’ Yamato reminded brutally.

“And whose fault is that?” Naruto said lowly.

“Isn’t he Sasuke?” one of the kids whispered.

“Yeah, he is. I heard that he learned to use fireball just in the first year of academy!” another kid said in awe.

“That is nothing. I heard that he beat the demon who attacked the village so badly, that he ran away crying.” A snooty voice said.

As the kids whispered about Sasuke’s achievements, Naruto’s eyes started to twitch. ‘Really? No mention of his betrayal?’

‘The propaganda probably took care of that.’ Yamato guessed.

“Sasuke sir,” one kid said timidly, “Would you show us your fireball?”

“Hmm.” He appears as if he is thinking greatly about that, then he flipped through the signs slowly, exciting the kids greatly.

“Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!” the ball of fire burned one of the kid’s hare, and the kids ran away in fear.

Meanwhile, Naruto watched them run away in disbelief. “How did I lose control?”

“Performance anxiety.” Came the helpful answer of Yamato.

Deciding that he didn’t wanted to be in the park anymore, Naruto leaves the park.

Leaving the park, “Sasuke” heard some old grannies whispering about him. ‘Well then. I, the great Sasuke, cannot let this thing stand!’

So, he removed his pants, mooned those grannies, and left in a brooding pose, while the old ladies were sprawled on the ground unconscious from the shock and inappropriateness they have been exposed to.

Arriving on a fancy restaurant, (Because of the demonic hunger,) Yamato asked. “Was that necessary?”

“Yes. And when did these morons built such a fancy restaurant? Didn’t I devastate this village just few months ago?”

“Business must be booming.” Yamato guessed once more.

Really, his wielder should be able to observe these things. ‘Maybe I should get him the book of observations by Sherlock Holmes?’

Naruto entered into the restaurant, where he was greeted by a receptionist who looked like Kabuto…

‘Nope, not dealing with this again.’ he thought, and just clamed one of the tables. Strangely enough, no one is willing to raise any objections.

‘Probably because the table is not booked.’ Yamato surmised.

The waiter came, and Naruto looked at the menu. ‘What do you think, Yamato?’

‘Well, I’m a sword, I really don’t need to eat.’ Was the helpful suggestion of his sword.

‘Everything then.’ The demon decided.

“Bring me every item on this menu.” “Sasuke” told the waiter, as much nicely as he could. No need to anger the help.

“O- of course, uchiha sir.” The waiter being very surprised, left quickly.

Soon enough, the table was filled with food, and around forty-five minutes later, it was not: “Sasuke” finished everything which he ordered.

the waiter presented him with the bill, but “Sasuke” refused to pay. “What? How dare you ask me for the bill? Don’t you know who I am?”

the manager who just appeared, has this reply as a response. “No, not really. Nor I have any wish to know you. give me the payment please.”

“I am Sasuke Uchiha!” “Sasuke” declared, “The defeater of the demons, personal bitch of the Orochimaru, and the final bitch of the Uchiha clan! How dare you ask me for the payment?”

While Yamato was roaring in laughter, the security of the restaurant arrived, and tried to intimidate “Sasuke.” But he beat them all up, left the staff unconscious, and walked out of the restaurant whistling happily.

‘I’ll send the payment later, no need for them to suffer for my amusement too much.’ The demon thought generously.

‘And if Sasuke is forced to pay?’ Yamato asked, already knowing the answer.

‘That is a bonus. Hahahahahahahaha!’

* * *

(With Tsunade, in the Hokage’s tower.)

Tsunade was in the mission room, watching the teams of Genin coming and going, taking their missions.

Now more than ever, Leaf needs their missions to be fulfilled, otherwise there would be a lot of financial problems for them, what with destruction and loss of lives among their forces.

As the final team of Genin leaves, and Tsunade has just started to imagine of having lunch, an ANBU appears before her, and kneels.

“What is it now?” she sighed.

“My lady, we’re receiving strange reports about Sasuke Uchiha.” The ANBU reported quickly, since he knew how easily Tsunade’s temper could flare up.

“What kind of reports?” she asked in a board tone, keeping her anger hidden. ‘If that damn boy ran away again…’

“He attacked the children of the academy on the nearby park, he exposed himself indecently in front of few ladies, and refused to pay the bill of a restaurant, and left the staph and security unconscious.” The ANBU recited all the incidence.

Tsunade considers this. “Well then. Call Sasuke Uchiha and Sannin Orochimaru. I’ll investigate this myself.”

“Yes, my lady.” The ANBU saluted.

“Also, do assign a team of ANBU to keep an eye on the village, this doesn’t bode well.”

“Of course.” having his orders, the ANBU left.

* * *

(At the restaurant.)

Tsunade arrived with Orochimaru, and a group of ANBU, which refused to let Hokage alone in such a dangerous place, despite her protests.

More important is the fact that Sasuke cannot be found anywhere. Which is quite distressing for the both Sannin.

When questioned by Hokage, the staph revealed the same thing which the ANBU reported, though it appears that Sasuke was not just done with beating them up.

He also wrote in their faces, “My bitches!”

* * *

(Meanwhile, in a forest clearing, among the foliage…)

Sasuke has Sakura’s arms around his torso, pulling him closer, closer, closer, towards the final stage of the game which they have been playing for a while…

“Sasuke Uchiha,” the voice of an ANBU of an undefined description, which the readers are smart enough to imagine for themselves, echoed in the clearing.

They both separated, and Sasuke went out of the hidden place, to know why exactly the ANBU has interrupted him. ‘Couldn’t they understand that I was in the middle of something?’

Sasuke walked out, radiating the killing intent, Sakura right behind him. The ANBU however, didn’t gave a damn. The Uchiha may have faced the demon, but the ANBU is a true Shinobi, having doing this for many years, and surviving the monsters after whom the ANBU are sent so often.

“What is it?” Sasuke asked with a frosty tone.

“The Hokage has summoned you.” the ANBU answered with equal amount of frostiness.

“Indeed?” he raised an eyebrow.

Sakura however, was not so willing to defy her teacher’s orders. But before she could even move, Sasuke puts his hands on her shoulder, and stopped her.

“Why exactly has she called me?”

“There’s an imposter of you running around the village, causing all sorts of problems.” The ANBU explains.

“Really.” Sasuke sneered, “And you couldn’t tell that it is an imposter?”

“All the attempts of finding the identity of this person have failed.” The ANBU didn’t cared to defend the village either.

“Fine. We’ll go to the Hokage.” Sasuke turned around and left with Sakura, planning to maim this person the first chance he gets.

‘You will regret ever disrespecting my name.’ he thinks to himself, while controlling the urge to run the current through his hands. It might shock Sakura after all.

* * *

(In the Hyuga compound.)

Neji arrives, not knowing that Hanabi chased him.

She didn’t want to be alone in a training ground, what’s so wrong about that?

In any case, Hanabi is reconsidering her decision as she sees what exactly is going on in her absence, and for what exactly is going on the compound.

She sees how every Hyuga is lined up, and Hinata is testing them by activating their seals. She does not understand why her sister is doing this, but she understands what would happen if Neji and her were discovered to be without seals.

As Hiashi screams in pain, Hanabi’s heart twinges in sympathy. ‘Really sis, why did you have to snap like that?’

Then came the turn of Neji. But before then, some Hyuga Shinobi came to Hinata, and reported.

“My lady, she cannot be found on the compound.”

“Hmhmhmhm. She couldn’t hide for too long. Go search her in the village.” The young clan head orders.

“Yes.” They all left quickly.

As the Shinobi left, Hinata makes the sign for activating the seal, and Neji began his acting.

‘So that’s why he was screaming few days ago.’ Hanabi thinks, when she discovered Neji doing that, he embarrassingly told her that he was acting out the transformation sequence from his favorite manga. There is a lot of screaming involved in it, also the planet shaking, and a fight with the pink blob afterwards.

At that point, Hanabi just walked out, weirded out by the strange things which her cousin likes to read.

Hinata keeps the seal longer than necessary, making the branch members bristle in anger. The once gentle Hyuga princess has turned out to be such a tyrant, they will never trust the main house again.

As she finally stops making the sign, Neji huffs on the floor, tired from all that screaming. ‘That better be worth it. my throat is sore. If not then I’ll just beat her up and get the fuck out of here.’

Hanabi was quite impressed with the performance, but Hinata is not just satisfied yet. “Dear cousin, apologies for making this longer, it is quite understandable that you would want to go and rest now.” She said in a false understanding tone, making all the branch Hyuga’s grit their teeth in anger. “But you need to do one more thing for me.”

Taking his incapability of answering her in clear words, aside from some croaking, Hinata thinks, ‘I may have just gone a little bit overboard.’

But really, his sore throat is causing him problems now. Maybe destroying your vocal cords for screaming is not such a great idea?

“Remove your headband for me.”

The branch members took a sharp hiss of breath. It wasn’t enough that they have to endure such humiliation from the family of their own, it wasn’t enough that they are the ones who are sacrificed in the name of preserving the main house, but now they have to display their greatest shame too?

One of them couldn’t contain himself. “Lady Hinata, is it really necessary? You have humiliated him enough already!”

“Be quiet, or I’ll kill you, understand?” she said with absolute finality.

He backed down, but all of them simmered with rage.

‘Well, let’s just hope that doodle is enough to fool her, if she looks into it any deeper though, of course, if it is not washed out somehow… shit.’

Neji lifts the headband, struggling for the smallest movements. “Hmm. The seal appears to be exactly how it should be,” Hinata noted.

But then she activated her Byakugan. “But would you mind telling me why there’s no Chakra flowing through it?” she asked sweetly.

Neji, still on the floor, headband on his hands, didn’t answer. “Well then? Guards, arrest him!”

But before anyone can make a move, Neji sprang up from his prone position, leapt at Hinata, kicked the surprised clan head right on the face, and bombarded her with ruthless palm strikes. By the end of the assault, Hinata was on the floor instead, and Neji was gone.

Of course, only the main house sycophants were the only ones who cared for her, carrying Hinata to the healing section of the compound, while the branch members watched from the smug satisfaction.

Of course, they weren’t the only ones who saw all of this passing by. Hanabi sees with her wide eyes, Neji disappearing, and Hinata being carried away. ‘I must somehow join him, the odds are otherwise, not good for me.’

(end.)

* * *

(Omake.)

Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto are relaxing within the café, since the workload seems to have reduced recently. Hatori did warned them though, that they should take this time to relax as much as they could, since they would start to pick up the pace.

Currently, an order consisting of French fries, two different sandwiches, brownies, and coffee is resting on the table, while Sasuke and Naruto are brawling for the fries.

“Sigh…” Sakura finished her brownie, and gets up to control the rowdy boys. “Why do I even bother to come out with these two morons?”

(End Omake.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Order in the Omake resembles the order which I saw when I went in a café with my family last Saturday.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33.

Dubious interrogation, fabulous escape.

(With Neji.)

The ANBU chasing Neji realized that he just didn’t have the rank of Jonin for nothing. utilizing his information of back alleys and hidden passages, as well as using his Byakugan to its fullest, Neji evaded the forces chasing after him for a long while, giving them a run around the Leaf.

Unfortunately, the numbers were too much against him. And soon enough, he was caught, and was put on the same cell, which once held Naruto.

* * *

(With Hanabi.)

With Neji’s sudden beatdown on Hinata and escape, the village was put on a high alert.

This actually made Hanabi’s job of sneaking around simultaneously harder, but easier as well.

Easier, because outside of the Hyuga clan, she is not suspected… yet.

Harder, because the whole village is on an alert, and sneaking around is the most dangerous in such times.

‘Let’s just hope he didn’t spill the beans yet.’ She thought while avoiding the ANBU patrol.

By this point, the entire village is crawling with Shinobi.

* * *

(With Neji, in the prison sell.)

The Hokage interrogates Neji, with Ino present there to extract information if Neji loses consciousness.

Still Tsunade is not inclined to use Yamanaka abilities on the allies of Naruto, it is unknown whether the demon has given anyone any protection against the mind intrusions.

Slap!

Thus, the current way of asking questions, and slapping the snark out of the prisoner.

“Man, no wonder Naruto ran away. If the services are so bad here…” the words of Hyuga were halted.

Slap!

“Stop the yammering, and answer the question!” Tsunade raged, “Are there any other agents we don’t know about?”

“Is there a reason why I should tell you?” Neji asked with a swollen face, which still didn’t stop him from grinning.

“Yes. Because otherwise I’ll break you into pieces.” Threatened the Hokage.

“Nice threat. But to be honest, the death threats are not gonna work. Killing me here wouldn’t give you anything, while dying here is advantageous for me. It’ll be amusing to see you all run around in the dark like the headless chickens, or people who suddenly lost the electricity…” Neji’s description was interrupted most brutally.

Slap!

Neji, being chained just like Naruto was, jostled badly with that last slap.

But this still did not get any information out of him for Tsunade, so she decided to leave.

She still has to find that imposter Sasuke. Good thing that damn brat is cooperating, and is under the constant watch of the ANBU. She would have left him under Sakura, but Tsunade didn’t trusted Sakura with such a task.

* * *

(With Hanabi.)

As Hanabi kept trying to evade the patrols of both Leaf and Hyuga Shinobi, she ran into someone.

“Looki what we have here.” A smug voice said.

“A Hyuga all on her own, in such a dangerous time?” another voice, though far more restrained than the previous one, said.

“It would be shame if something were to happen to her, now wouldn’t it be?” a voice with higher than previous two voices stated.

“You three.” Hanabi sighed.

Konohamaru core, they have been such a thorn in her side during the days of academy. And their graduation before her, no doubt increased their arrogance.

“What now?” Hanabi asked, while taking a gentle fist stance, “Are you gonna try to capture me?”

“Hmhmhmhmhm. You’re quite lucky that the boss likes to update the list quite frequently. Otherwise, you would have been in quite a trouble.” The leader of the Konohamaru core stated, walking out of the shadows, while his teammates remained hidden.

“But seriously, you shouldn’t stay here in open like this.”

“Feh, they haven’t captured me yet.” Hanabi waved the suggestion off.

“Of course, they haven’t. they are looking for a Jonin, a Genin sneaking around is not a problem, especially when the situation of your clan is practically the talking point of the entire village.” Said Konohamaru with harsh tone.

“Then—” Hanabi tried to say something in defense.

“But,” the boy interrupted, “As soon as the clan head wakes up, and orders you to be hunted, and informs the Hokage about your potential involvement…” he trailed off.

“Okay, okay, I get it. But I really need to take someone out of the prison. I can’t exactly escape from here on my own, I am not some insanely strong Shinobi, who could take on multiple squads.” ‘Yet.’ She thinks.

“You should have said that earlier.” Konohamaru mutters, as he pulled a map out of the dimensional seals, used by Naruto.

‘Likely given to him by Naruto.’ she deduces.

“I created this map of the correctional facility to take boss out in case they somehow brainwashed him. Can’t take any chances with those damnable Yamanakas.” Shaking his head, the Sarutobi hands her the map, “Take this. The sell marked with red would be where you’ll need to go.”

“Konohamaru, patrol is approaching.” Came the voice of Mogi.

“Not to mention, we need to report.” Udin said.

“Right, right.” He leans towards Hanabi a little, “Do try to be careful with the snake.”

With that warning, the honorable grandson disappears with his teammates.

Hanabi shivers. She knew who exactly he was referring to.

* * *

(In the prison sell.)

“Man, I’m only here for few hours, and I am already board.” Neji tried to stretch his body as far as he could, given his shackled arms and legs to the chair. “How the hell did he managed to live here for four days?”

“Good thing that you won’t have to stay for that long.” A familiar voice said, as the door opens.

“Ah, my wonderful cousin. Remind me to buy you something nice later as a thanks, would you?” Neji said in appreciation.

“Sure. Sure.” Hanabi filed this for later use in her head, “Let’s remove those chains.”

As both Hyugas walked out, Neji asked, “How did you opened the door? I thought they were Chakra sensitive or something.”

“They were. But a certain someone gave me a way to pass that restriction, along with the map of the facility.”

Neji just shook his head. ‘Saved by children of all people. He won’t let me live this one down…’

* * *

(With Tsunade, in the Hokage’s office.)

Nursing the headache which the latest development has given her, everyone has decided to give Tsunade her space, likely urged by Orochimaru.

Not even Shizune was around, whom the snake Sannin expertly diverted on some other task, while telling Tsunade that if she wants a drink to kill this headache, then she is free to have one, no one would bother her about it.

‘As if he could tell me what to do in my own god damned territory.’ Tsunade thought in rage.

Still, she brings the bottle which she has kept hidden from Shizune, and then took a large swig from it.

The buzz was just starting to hit her, that suddenly, the window of her office is broken, and Sasuke Uchiha stumbled on to Hokage’s office, covered in broken glass.

Seeing his disturbed expression, the boss decided to ask. “Where’s Sakura?”

This snapped the Sasuke out of his disturbing episode which he was experiencing. “Oh, she’s around…” he said flippantly.

a fist appeared right where his head was few moments ago, and Tsunade thundered. “Who are you? And where’s the real one?”

“You? you have the nerve to ask that, when your village is going mad?” the imposter thundered equally angrily.

The Hokage, taken aback, staired him in drunken confusion.

“Those girls, those girls, those girls, those girls! Why the hell are they singing and dancing in front of a moving vehicle? Calling his name out, why?” the imposter said in a despairing tone.

Tsunade palmed her face. “Dammit. Whatever, we’ll deal with your breakdown later. But first, you’re under arrest.”

“If you have a normal imposter in your hands, then maybe.” As the features of “Sasuke” started to melt right in front of her eyes, a face of her nightmares appeared. “But you may find that task is impossible against me.”

“Narutoooooooooo!” Tsunade roared.

“That only sounds good when a girl during an orgasm yells.” The demon commented, while dodging the strikes of Tsunade.

While Tsunade was trying to burn the alcohol from her blood so she could fight more effectively, the demon didn’t give her a chance to complete the process, and after a headlock, slammed her head to the wall of her office multiple times.

Tsunade, being dazed and under the effects of the alcohol, could barely hear the conversation of Naruto with his sword, as her head is overcoming with dizziness.

“Hmm. As I thought, too much sell division. No wonder she went old like this.” Naruto muttered, examining her seal.

“What can you do about it? Just leave her here.” Yamato said in an uncaring tone.

“Actually,” Naruto draws something with his finger over the diamond seal on Tsunade’s forehead, “I can reverse this.”

Just like that, the damage the seal has done to Tsunade over the years reversed itself, while preserving the functionality of the seal.

The demon deciding to take advantage of this opportunity, asked Yamato about one other task. “Say, Yamato, I want to leave something for her. How do I do that?”

“Oh, simple. Just split your consciousness for a moment like a thread, and leave it wherever you want to leave it.”

Doing as the sword suggested, Naruto made Tsunade asleep, while whispering these final words to her. “Don’t worry, soon enough, you’ll see what I meant.”

His task accomplished, the demon dawned the guise of Sasuke once more, and left Hokage’s office, with one unconscious Hokage behind.

* * *

(With the skedaddling prisoner, and one innocent girl…)

Neji the escaped convict, along with entirely innocent Hanabi, who has done no crimes against the Leaf, were running through the streets, avoiding the patrols.

That didn’t last for too long, as the Hyugas grouped with the regular forces managed to find them out. Since she has been seen with Neji, this means that Hanabi herself is no longer safe.

Another group of Chunin tries to stop them, Neji blew them off with his yet unseen techniques, which didn’t use gentle fist at all… or that’s what someone would think, if they didn’t know that he was modifying the style for a while now.

“In the name of Leaf—” another squad leader tried to say.

“Take this!” Neji bludgeoned that group with ruthless attacks, and left behind a maimed, and mostly dead squad.

“They do love reciting their creed, don’t they?” Hanabi noted.

“Sure do.” Neji said, seeing the freedom getting nearer.

Just as they both escaped the gates of Leaf, with Neji laying waste to the guards situated there, the Hyuga breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ah, the very wonderful feeling of freedom. No responsibilities, no crazy clan heads, so, so much freedom!” the older Hyuga burst out into a song.

Right that moment, a squad of Chunin surrounded both of them. “Or not. Any chance we can leave in peace?” he asked hopefully.

“The only way you’re leaving here in pieces. Though please let enough of him survive, we do need to extract info from him.” Said one of the senior ninjas.

“But first, we have some questions.” A very well familiar voice said.

Tenten, along with Lee stepped out of the formation. And Neji cursed, he was not looking forward to this.

“So? Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” his former female teammate asked.

“What?” Neji though is very confused. ‘Isn’t that obvious what I am doing?’

“Don’t you understand my rival? Why have you forsaken the path of youth and will of fire?” Lee clarified.

‘I can’t believe that guy was a teammate of the cousin.’ Hanabi thought in amusement.

“What do you mean forsaken the path?” Neji asked. ‘Why must he use such dramatic words?’

“You. Why are you betraying us? Is it really this hard to understand?” Tenten, seeing that Lee is failing to get their point across, finally lost her patience.

“Oh, that. I was thinking that you were asking something else.” The Hyuga shook his head. “To answer you, I can’t forsake something when I didn’t believe in that something.”

Tenten dreaded his next sentence, “and I can’t be loyal to something or someone, when they didn’t have my loyalty in the first place.”

That confirmed it, this was all the doing of the latest nightmare haunting the Leaf.

“You’re done?” the leader asked.

“Yes.” They both answered.

“Well then. Get him!” the leader ordered.

Hanabi stayed out of the fight, and Shinobi deemed Neji to be a bigger threat. So, they all focused on him.

Watching Neji in combat like this, made Hanabi realize just how much he was concealing his skills. Weaving in and out of his attacker’s guard, smoothly avoiding attacks and surprises, and taking full advantage of the Byakugan.

Naturally, this is all augmented with his modified attacks, with long range elemental attacks, which are holy unexpected from a Hyuga, and lighting his own palms on fire before attacking.

In the end, even Tenten didn’t managed to avoid his attacks for too long, and it all came down to between Lee and Neji.

Exchanging blows, Neji commented to Lee, “You know, he really despised you.”

Lee didn’t answer.

“So much that he wanted to kill you.”

Still, Lee kept his focus on the fight.

“But I stopped him.” Neji smirked.

“What?” Lee lost his focus.

But instead of attacking, Neji explained, “I wanted to see whether you can come around the way we think. Sadly, Sensei got his claws on you, and you became unsalvageable.”

But talking proved to be an error on his part, as he heard a very unwelcome chuckle.

“Hmhmhmhmhmhm. The prodigy leaving like that? I suppose sooner or later, the bird does leave his nest. Only to end up the pray of the snake.”

“Seriously?” Neji couldn’t believe the childish words of the Sannin.

“Kill the boy, I don’t care much about him.” Orochimaru licked his lips, “But bring me the girl. I need to find many secrets with her. Kukukukukuku!”

“Goddammit, you won’t get her so easily.” Neji declared.

The Shinobi, following the orders of Orochimaru, came for Hanabi. But Neji was in their way, which didn’t last long.

The slaps in the prison may have no effect on Naruto, but they did take their toll on him. In addition, Naruto spent four days in the sell, while he only spent few hours. Coupled with the fighting during the gauntlet to the gates, and fighting outside, it all started to wear him out.

Orochimaru, taking advantage of this weakness, tried to reach for Hanabi, who did her best trying to escape, while trying to fend off the Shinobi which Neji couldn’t stop, but at the end of the day, she is just a Genin, going against above her rank.

The situation looked hopeless, but someone else appeared from the gates of the leaf. “Hold it!”

That voice caused the battle to be halted, giving Neji and Hanabi some rest, while annoying Orochimaru.

“You can’t capture them.” Sasuke said while walking out of the gates of Leaf.

“Oh? And what makes you think we can’t do that dear Sasuke?” questioned Orochimaru.

“Simple really. I, the great Sasuke Uchiha, forbid you from doing so.” Sasuke declared with a pose.

“But don’t you understand?” one of the Shinobi asked, “They are the allies of that demon. We must capture them, so we can find out his possible plans.”

“Yeah, about that, I have suddenly decided that I hate you weaklings. I will join my teammate in beating you up.” Sasuke grinned with that declaration.

“W, what?” was the expectant reaction.

“Why are you so surprised? After all, I did abandoned this shithole once. What makes you think I won’t do it again?” Sasuke gave ‘Are you stupid’ look to everyone there.

“Very well then. Target Sasuke Uchiha, he clearly has lost his senses.” Orochimaru ordered.

‘His mannerisms, they don’t match. No way he’s Sasuke. Probably the imposter causing so much problem recently… no matter. You won’t be able to handle the force of this size for too long.’ Orochimaru thinks to himself.

The battle picked up again, this time, Sasuke and Neji versus the forces of Leaf. “Dammit Uchiha, why do you have to be so traitorous? I looked up to you.”

“Sasuke” answered while kicking this particular Shinobi away, “Then you should have found someone better to look up to!”

Neji adapted easily for “Sasuke’s” presence in the battle, in fact too well. As if he has previous experience.

Orochimaru tried to snatch Hanabi by himself, since his forces were unable to reach her. “Sasuke,” got furious with this move.

“How dare you?” he gave a flying kick to Orochimaru, and began to pummel him, while leaving Neji to handle the rest.

Orochimaru, not believing that a simple imposter could deliver such a beating to him, yelled, “You, you, why are you here?”

“Hmhmhmhmhmhm. What are you talking about? Didn’t you noticed that I was always here, ever since I was brought into this village by my magnificent teammate?”

“There’s no way Sasuke would say those words.” Orochimaru hissed.

“One can imagine.” “Sasuke” muttered. “Now, die, would you?”

Orochimaru was unwilling to give up. he was just preparing himself to unleash his giant snake form, (The name of which the author forgot,) and tear the demon into pieces.

Luckily for him, the cavalry arrived in the form of real Sasuke, and Sakura along with him, sparing him from such effort.

“This is where you are, imposter.” Sasuke declared haughtily.

“What? Imposter? Me? You must be out of your mind. I am Sasuke Uchiha.”

“Humph. I am Sasuke Uchiha, and you are a cheap copy. There’s only one person who is low enough to do this. Finally realized my superiority, loser?” Sasuke smirked, and crossed his arms.

“You must be delusional. This is exactly why this village has taken such a beating recently, leaving such mentally unwell people roam free, no wonder my magnificent teammate thrashed you all.” Said “Sasuke.”

“Yeah right. Magnificent. Why don’t you come here, and then I’ll remind you why you used to cower before my fist?” Sakura declared.

“That, was a good one.” “Sasuke” couldn’t find anything wrong with that reply.

“Yes. I have been teaching her, can’t let her embarrass us too much, now can I?” Sasuke said, after all, they have a reputation to hold.

“True, true.” “Sasuke” nodded.

“Also, just to put the doubt to the rest forever,” Sasuke grabbed Sakura, and pulled her in a deep passionate kiss.

“Yewwwwww! At least get a room…” “Sasuke” said in disgust.

“Why? Aren’t people allowed to show their affection in public? Do we have to learn that from you as well?” Sakura asked in sarcasm.

“No, but seriously, at least think of the children,” “Sasuke” said while pointing to Hanabi with a disgusted face.

“Ba. By her age, I was planning to kidnap Sasuke, and do many wonderful things to him. She isn’t much of a child anyway.” Sakura said flippantly.

“Ug. There’s no arguing with you. fine, you are the real Sasuke, I didn’t want the emo factor anyway.” the appearance of the “Sasuke” changed slowly, to reveal demon Naruto Uzomaki.

“As expected,”

“I had my doubts,” Orochimaru coughed from where he was thrown when Sasuke appeared.

“And none of you could be sure until the end.” Naruto was ready to milk this situation for all it’s worth, but Neji’s cry for help alerted him that this isn’t the time.

“You bastard, help me already!” he screamed.

“Coming!” disappearing, Naruto appeared next to the Hyuga, and they both prepared for the combat, back-to-back.

“The appearance of,” Naruto said with a pose.

“The dynamic duo!” Neji finished with another pose.

They both leapt into the combat, but as Sakura and Sasuke got involved, Naruto decided that he has enough fun. So, he wasted the entire force with the liberal use of Fire Blast, and Charge Beam, grabbed Neji and Hanabi, and disappeared in the flames, leaving a mostly dead squad of Shinobi, and few alive ones.

Sasuke cursed. ‘Dammit Nara!’

Not that his presence was guaranteed to go in their favor, but the Uchiha would have preferred him to be present there.

He’ll have a long talk about that with him.

(end.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies on apologies. I mistakenly uploaded chapter 32 in the place of chapter 33.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34.

Once more, the author couldn’t come up with anything.

(Naruto and the escaped prisoner, in a hideout, Land of Sea.)

Neji stumbled from that teleportation, while Hanabi managed to regain her balance. The demon was not affected, he has gotten used to it.

The demon observed the Hyuga on the floor. “All those acting lessons, waisted.”

“What?” Neji didn’t expected to hear such harsh words from his friend.

“I mean, you couldn’t hold yourself from revealing your true intentions for a little while longer?” Naruto continued further.

“Look, it is easy for you to say, when a crazy unstable girl is not constantly hounding you as a proxy revenge.” Neji retorted.

“So? I had the entire village against me. what’s the worst thing a clan could do?” Naruto dismissed his retort.

“Maybe test the seal?” Hanabi, having enough of the arguing, said.

“What?” both of them asked.

“Apparently, in an effort to root out the spies, my sister decided that she should test everyone’s seal, whether it has been tampered or not.” Hanabi explains.

“Hmm. And if it is proven that their seal is tampered, or not there at all…” the demon stroked his chin in thought.

“Then they would find their spy, yes. Of course, if someone broke dew to the pain, that’ll be a bonus.” Neji said bitterly.

“But you couldn’t act as if the seal was hurting you?” Naruto asked, since he does remember instructing the Hyuga to do exactly that.

“Oh, trust me. he screamed like a little bitch.” Hanabi smirked evilly.

“hanabi, mind your language!” Neji chastised the unrepentant girl, “and I totally didn’t scream like that. it was the scream of defiance, of rage, and manliness!” he said hotly.

“But you see, she ordered him to remove his forehead protector, and then saw that there was no Chakra on the seal on his forehead…” she trailed off.

Naruto hits his head with his palm. “Should have thought about that.” the demon muttered in annoyance.

“But seriously, like a little bitch?” the demon asked the Hyuga girl.

“Yes.” She confirms.

“Hanabi!” Neji flushed in embarrassment.

“Let it go already.” Naruto puts Neji in a headlock, “She’s already living within my circle. Her corruption couldn’t be stopped.”

* * *

(With Tsunade, in hospital, Leaf.)

Tsunade woke up from the unconsciousness in the hospital, a very unusual feeling for her. she’s far more used to be on the other side, rather than the patient herself.

She remembers that Naruto did something to her diamond seal before he knocked her out. She checked it, but she didn’t find anything unusual with the Chakra flow into the seal.

She took a look of herself in the bedside mirror, which surprised her.

She has just woken up, no one is in the room. She hasn’t dawned her illusion yet. Despite that, she looked around twenty-five.

Hearing the footsteps outside, she dawned her illusion quickly. ‘Until I can find out what exactly he did to me, it is best for me to keep this hidden. With the illusion up, no one would suspect anything.’

Her lips widened in a smile. ‘And if he truly somehow reduced my age, then he just doesn’t know what a mistake he has made.’

* * *

(With the Storm Cloud alliance, near Land of Moon.)

Raikage and Mizukage, ready with their forces, were taking their attacking forces to the Land of Moon, under the leadership of Mei.

Naruto sees everything while walking with Neji, with Shinobi camps everywhere, this being the first time for both of them anywhere near the big operation.

The demon found the tent where Mizukage was located, while Raikage didn’t come. “Someone needs to take care of the village,” were his words.

Hanabi, of course, after the demon teleported her to the Cloud, was left with Raikage. She was too young to be involved in this war.

‘Such a shame that I didn’t get much time to train with her. She is a promising student.’ Naruto shook his head in regret.

‘Something tells me that she might benefit from the demon transformation.’ Yamato commented.

‘Probably. But until it is not safe, I am rather hesitant to allow that.’ it wouldn’t do if she died, now would it?

Mizukage who was getting bored with the repetitive process of dismantling the tents, moving the force, putting the tents again, getting the reports from scouts… etc. etc. pretty boring tasks.

So, when Naruto walked with Neji into her tent, she jumped from excitement. “Ah, Naruto dear. Did you brought some entertainment for me?” she asked, looking at Neji.

“Uuummm.” The Hyuga having grown up in a stiff clan, is unused to such forwardness.

“Sadly, not much of an entertainment. Remember that Hyuga I told you about?”

“Ah, the one who helped you in getting information?”

“Yes. Apparently, his clan decided to dig deeper for the spies, and he was found out.”

“Oh.” During this entire conversation, Mei didn’t stop examining Neji.

“So, you see, I decided to bring him here, that way he won’t be left on the rather tender mercies of the Leaf.” Naruto finished with the explanation.

“I understand.” Said Mizukage distractedly.

“Great then. I’ll leave him to the tender mercies of you, I have some important things to do in the demon world.” as Naruto was saying this, a gate opened behind him, and when he finished saying what he wanted, he disappears into it.

“Oiy, oy, bastard! This is not fare, you can’t leave me with this predator, get back you asshole!” leaving a terrified Neji behind.

Mei grabbed Neji’s shoulder. “We’re going to have so much fun.”

* * *

(Back to the Leaf, with Tsunade.)

Tsunade with her trusted Jonin was listening to the report of Orochimaru, despite losing few Shinobi, she did not consider the damage to be bad. Especially when Naruto was here last time, he just blew up the village.

Still, this time, it presented a problem all the same. “Danzo, I trust that you would be able to monitor the forces for even more spies and saboteurs?”

“Indeed.” Confirmed the old man.

“Milady, I suggest that we should keep this quiet,” Kakashi suggested quietly. “The morale of the forces would not survive the constant screening.”

“He’s right.” Orochimaru agreed.

“Very well then. Just monitor them secretly, and if they display suspicious behavior, then bring them in for questioning.” She finalized the orders. ‘what I wouldn’t give for the sudden return of Ibiki? Anko is good, but he was something entirely else. Same goes for Inoichi.’

“Of course, she could ask Orochimaru to resurrect them,” a voice at the back of her head suggested, but she disregarded such a suggestion.

“What I want to know is, where was the Nara during all this?” Orochimaru asked, “I don’t know how much effective he could have been, but for all the training he did with the snakes, it would be useless if he doesn’t ever appear in the battle.”

“He has already left for the Land of Moon.” Tsunade answers, “He’ll lead the defense there.”

“Lady Tsunade, I must ask you to reconsider this. The boy may have mastered the sage arts, and he truly have a great strategic mind, but he has no experience of leading operation of that level.” Danzo protested this decision.

“You’re not wrong. But we don’t seem to have many options, Orochimaru and myself have to remain here, in case an assault comes this way. You yourself have many responsibilities, otherwise I would have sent you there.”

‘Let’s just hope he can bring in some favorable results soon, we can all use those now.’

(end.)

* * *

(Omake.)

“Hahahahahahaha! You developed a crush on a nurse who extracted your blood?” said a very drunk Sasuke.

“Well, this isn’t the first time it happened to me.” Said Hatori, taking another sip of the alcohol.

For a moment Sasuke considers how bad of an idea it is to drink with the guy who is basically controlling your show, and by all means your boss.

But he then remembers the reputation of Eagle, and takes another gulp, and extends his glass, asking silently for a refill.

“Wait, that happened to you again?” asked the Uchiha, taking a large gulp from his recently refilled glass.

“Yes, when I was around twenty-1 or so.” Answers Hatori, who despite enjoying alcohol with Sasuke for a while now, is not showing any effects of the buzz.

Done with his drink, Hatori finally just let’s go of the glass, which automatically went to the kitchen to get cleaned. He extends his right hand, and a letter appears on his hand.

“So, what do you think about this offer of an interview?” he asks Sasuke.

Suddenly losing his buzz, Sasuke sees the letter in Hatori’s hand. “It is up to you. you are the one who is directing everything.”

“True. They knew that I won’t be appearing even they asked me, I am anti-social like that. but think about your careers, because one day this show will end. And you do need to plan for that.” said Hatori, “Discuss with Naruto and Sakura.”

Hatori drops the letter in Sasuke’s lap.

(End omake.)


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35.

Skirmishes.

(With Naruto in hell, in the territory of the Golden crows.)

Jin Wuya along with his father Yatagarasu, as well as the allies of Naruto were gathered there, except for Kai and the cyborg general Robert. Both of them considered these meetings to be a waste of time, (Naruto agrees with this sentiment,) and the wolf wanted to hone his instincts, whatever that meant.

So, they all gathered here, to discuss why exactly the demon council is throwing such a fit, when Naruto haven’t even destroyed anything important to them.

“So, why exactly they’re throwing such a hissy fit? I was just having so much fun in the human world, and yet here I am, doing the responsible work.” The demon complained.

“Oh? As if you don’t have any important things to do in the human world?” Elena questioned, “Don’t tell me you waisted the hole time there?”

“Oy. The only thing which is important there for me to do was to make sure that the war goes on finely. There are two brilliant people who are overseeing that, I don’t like to interfere with their planning.” Naruto reminded her of the fact that he has people for everything, in true overlord fashion.

Seeing the unchanging face of the Succubae, he continued on, “And of course, I also terrify the enemies, where ever I show up.” the demon was scraping at the bottom at this point, “To destroy their morale, and sow the chaos…”

“According to them, agitating the summons enough that they attacked you right within the territory of Hell, is absolutely unbecoming of an overlord. You must answer them, to explain why exactly that happen, and give them the surety that this kind of thing never happens again.” Said Jin Wuya, sounding like a dry professional flaming crow.

The Sylph blew a raspberry at the Jin Wuya. “Oh, don’t tell me that you have been corrupted by the officious morons?”

“What? No. I was just reading their letter.” Jin said quickly.

He has no intension of becoming like those lifeless morons.

“In any case,” Yatagarasu rumbled, “To call out the overlord to answer for whatever they deem necessary, is an absolute disrespect!” his volume grows louder and louder, “An overlord, is the strongest demon there is, and since there are only two of them in this world, they should be honored, not answer! They don’t deserve anything but a beating!” the older golden crow launched flames from his wings at the conclusion of his rant.

“But father,” Jin protested, “We don’t need problems from them, not especially now. We need to manage this politically.”

“I concur.” The Succubus gives her nod.

“I actually would go with the great one here,” Lydia stated, “An overlord shouldn’t answer the bunch of politicians.”

Everyone looked at Naruto. it was his decision to make after all.

“Jin, we’ll do it your way first. But if it didn’t get us anywhere, then we’ll kick them out of the power structure entirely, crippling the council in the process.” The overlord gave his verdict.

“But that would cause the unrest, the likes of which Hell hasn’t experienced for one thousand years!” the younger golden crow drooped in sadness.

“So what? I am surprised that this is coming from you. you should understand that while stability is fine and all, the natural nature of the demons is not to live in peace and harmony all the time.” Naruto told his avion friend.

“Hell yeah! If the instability happens, then all the better!” Yatagarasu blasted the flames towards the roof and destroys it, causing the sunlight to appear in the room in which they were all seated, “This would quell the weak blood! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

Elena and Jin both sighed, while the demon joined the three-legged crow in his laughter.

* * *

(In the human world, at the Land of Moon.)

The Storm Cloud Alliance marched up to the Land of moon, expecting to fold the country easily, especially since they took out all the military officers which can defend against them, (Or try… there’s a reason why the usual Samurai armies, aside from the Land of Iron, avoid the battle with Shinobi forces,) and then take over its resources.

After all, this entire operation was about the resources.

Instead, they found forces of Leaf and Sand, ready to defend them.

This, started the biggest battle between the Shinobi nations, ever since the end of the third Shinobi war.

* * *

(In Storm Cloud Alliance camp, strategy meeting.)

it is night time, and while the battle has stopped for now, there were guards posted everywhere in case of an attack during the night time.

After all, assassinations often take place in the time of night.

Currently though, Mei along with Neji and Jonin of the Mist and Cloud, were evaluating the damage they took during today’s battle, and trying to come up with the ways so they won’t take such a hammering again.

Because there is no other way to describe the battle today. while the forces of the Alliance started to turn things around, by that point it was evening, and the forces of Sand and Leaf retreated.

“How about you let us luce?” Yugito was suggesting with the agreement of B, “I doubt they have anyone who can deal with us.”

“Actually, I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Neji disagreed. “You see, you two, aside from the Kages and Naruto, are the heavy hitters of our side. You’re not supposed to be in the pictures until things are so bad that we need overwhelming fire power to get out of it.”

“I agree with him. I don’t think you should get involve yet, not at least for tomorrow. We’ll evaluate our condition afterwards, and then we’ll rethink about this.” Said Mizukage.

While B wanted to experience the thrill of battle, both the containers didn’t argue about this decision.

Besides, with the conflicts of these scales, they would end up getting involved anyway.

* * *

(With Leaf and Sand forces camp, with Shikamaru.)

Shikamaru Nara, the general who is responsible for fighting this battle, moves another piece on his shogi board.

‘Mizukage didn’t get involved today, and until things don’t get really desperate, I don’t expect her too.’ He moves another piece.

‘Naturally, they’ll be underestimating me, thinking that the strategies are all I have.’ For a moment, he felt for the nature’s energy around the world. ‘But they would have a nasty surprise in their hands.’ While chuckling, he captures the piece of the opposite side.

‘What about the containers though? Hmm. I believe they are the same way as Mizukage. I don’t expect them to be on the field until the situation is really dire for them. Now, if only I could get my hands on that damn Hyuga…’

* * *

(In Hell, with the Demon Council.)

Currently, the demon council of Hell has gathered within a very tense atmosphere, the likes of which this council has rarely experienced in the past.

Now, it was not that rare for an overlord to take part in the politics of the demon world in the past, but ever since the last two surviving overlords went into the isolation, the demon council has been running the things, and they have slowly amassed a base of power.

The overlords were not appearing to leave their isolation, the demon council figures itself as the ruler of the Hell in the modern times.

Except, suddenly, a new overlord has arrived. He even killed one of the two last overlords of the past few millennia, a claim which they don’t doubt since the fortress of the overlord seems to be entered recently, all the traps there were gone, and the throne room was damaged extensively.

What they can’t live by however, is this young and upcoming overlord trying to take interest in the politics, usurping their gathered power, which they have struggled for many years.

While summons attacking a demon was not a big deal, (If the demon in question dies, then it is a different matter entirely,) this meeting is taking place to remind the young overlord who actually runs the place, nothing more.

All the members pay attention, as the door is opened, and the demon faction of the overlord walked in…

(end.)

* * *

(Omake, the Interview.)

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke have all gathered within the studio of a tv channel. They decided to do this interview, since Hatori reminded them that once this show is over, they would be in the same place as before, so they do need to build a platform of sorts for their future career.

The show on which they would appear is called Jerry’s show, hosted by Jerry Lewis, (Who is unrelated with the comedian.)

Hatori did warned them that this guy would be a very tough person to deal with, since he asks tough questions relentlessly.

“Good evening everyone, today I have the three main actors of the new hit TV show, Symphony of Darkness which has recently appeared on the multiverse tv, and has been the talk of the multiverse for a while now.” The artificial sound of clapping ensued, while all three of them think of what they have gotten themselves into?

“Now. Why don’t you tell us about yourselves?” he said with a generous smile.

“Naruto Uzomaki,” said the demon, since in this trio, he handles most of the social interactions for the better or for the worse. “I am playing a demon in the show, who becomes a demon by absorbing the essence of an abomination.”

“That must come to you naturally.” Jerry said drily.

“Indeed. It helps that I have some relatability with the character, since his life mirrors my own before I got started on acting.”

“Alright. let’s see what the other male star has to say about himself?” Jerry turned to Sasuke.

“Sasuke Uchiha.” Jerry shivered from Sasuke’s tone, “I am playing the hero-villain character in this story.” Finished the Uchiha.

Taking a second to compose himself after that rather frosty introduction, Jerry asks. “So, do you believe that you should play the hero, rather than this confused role you’re playing currently?”

“Not really. You see, this role is very challenging to play. And to be honest, by this point it should be clear to everyone watching that this show doesn’t have any heroes.”

“True. Let’s move to the female member of the cast.” Jerry turned to Sakura, hoping for a little bit less intensity.

This is exactly why Sasuke is never left alone to handle the audience during a convention. Either Naruto or her has to act as a buffer to his colder nature to the everyone outside of his friend circle.

“Sakura Haruno.” She smiles, and Jerry immediately relaxes. He was so glad that his tension is so hard to pick up on the camera. “I play… a less than charitable role on this tv show.” Sakura glared at no one in particular.

Jerry sighed imperceptibly. “So, did you three have the prior experience of acting? Or this is the first time for you?”

“We actually used to have a quite a popular show around six or seven years ago. It never received the same level of popularity as this one, but that was the one which got us our breakthrough.” Naruto answered.

“Indeed? What happened to that show?”

“I suppose there is no easier way to say this. The backstage politics got out of hand, and then the producers cancelled the whole thing.” Sakura said, “Though they did rebooted it later.”

“Didn’t they ask you to resume your roles? I mean even if you played your older selves,” Jerry trailed off.

“No. this is why when Hatori approached us,” the name caused flinching within the audience of the multiverse, “We decided to take his offer.” Naruto smiled at the memory of receiving a letter.

“Besides,” Sasuke spoke then, “It wasn’t like that we were receiving any great offers to act anyway.”

“That must have caused bitterness I am sure.” Jerry said, finally feeling himself on the familiar ground with this trio.

“It certainly did.” Sakura said, “But you do have to role with the punches within this industry.”

“Yep. Especially when the entire thing has been corporatized to hell and back.” Naruto said pensively.

Jerry smiled. “Though Hatori seems to be not affected by it.”

“Indeed. That guy is a corporation on his own.”

“Ain’t it the truth?” Jerry smiled ruefully.

The interview continued on this manner for an hour, after which both Jerry Lewis and the trio breathed a sigh of relief when it ended.

The trio were happy that they won’t be grilled about their shady past before breaking in the acting industry, and Jerry was happy that he won’t have to deal with the people who could splatter his body all over the studio, and would get away with it because of Eagle.

‘I swear, I am not gonna bother him for the interviews and public appearances anymore.’ Decided the host within his head.

(End Omake.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is that right? I am seeing another bookmark for my story? Thank you whoever you are.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36.

The last wish.

(In Hell, in the meeting of the demon council.)

After the meeting was started, Jin Wuya along with Elena, puts the motion of officially recognizing Naruto as the overlord.

That official recognition as a result, would essentially give Naruto the power to use Hell’s resources through the council, within reason.

This, of course before the council could even begin their questioning with the demon. As a result, an argument broke out.

Some small portion of the council was in the favor, other equally small portion was not in the favor of this motion, and the majority remained neutral.

The overlord in question, was getting annoyed while watching other demons bicker with each other. He was just about to reach his boredom limitation, that they decided to amuse him.

“Yawn…” Yamato woke up from his long sleep, “So what did I miss?” the sword asked while watching the two groups brawling with each other, throwing the chairs on their opponents, or bashing them after folding them in the true old parliament of ring style.

His lips curved in amusement, Naruto explains, “They are providing entertainment for me.”

“Doesn’t sound like they are doing that willingly though.” Said the sword, while watching the brawl.

“Doesn’t matter.” Naruto didn’t care whether they were doing this willingly or not. What is important is that he is getting entertained.

The speaker of the council, tries to get everything in order. “Please, everyone, this is no way for us to conduct this meeting.” But they were not listening to her. “Please calm down, and sit on your respective places!”

When she finally had enough, she tries to separate them physically, but Naruto appears, and grabbed her hand, and stopped her from interfering in the process.

“Don’t bother.” The demon said with a lazy grin.

“But, but, the meeting—how is it supposed to progress—” she stammered.

“They won’t listen to you.” Naruto told her flatly, “You sound like a beautiful and smart lady. Why don’t you pay attention to some more important… matters?” he winked at her.

Finally getting down from her outrage, the demon speaker smiles as well. “You know what? You’re correct. Come with me.” she dragged Naruto to some other room in the building, leaving the council, and his allies alone there.

‘Score!’ Yamato celebrated.

Meanwhile, Jin Wuya and Elena watched all of that with resigned faces, while the neutral members of the demon council couldn’t believe what they just witnessed.

The two groups continued to brawl, as if nothing happened.

* * *

(Near the Land of Moon, elemental nations.)

This is the second day of the war between Storm Cloud Alliance, and the forces of Leaf and Sand. Both sides have different goals, one wanting to take over the Land of Moon, and other one wishes to make sure that territory does not fall into the enemy hands.

Both sides however, are not making any progress towards any of their goals. Essentially, they’re both in a stalemate, and leaders from the both sides are thinking furiously to find a way to break this stalemate.

For all their thinking though, they failed to arrive on a solution today.

* * *

(Back to Hell, in the council.)

Once more, the council along with the allies of Naruto Uzomaki, the modern-day overlord, gathered to discuss his official recognition.

While the proposal was actually put forward yesterday, the meeting devolved into a brawl, and the speaker left with Naruto, coming out of the relaxation room strangely happy and satisfied.

The same discussion is happening today, but instead of brawling with chairs, the people who are in opposition of Naruto’s proposal are asking him to answer for the assault of the summons, or quite frankly, are not willing to live with an overlord at all.

For more than two thousand years, overlords are nothing more than legend to the demon world, ever since the last two overlords went into isolation. But now, one has appeared, killed one of the old overlords, and is now trying to get official recognition.

While the screams and droning of the arguments echoed in his ears, Naruto while resting his chin on his fist, imagined how Shao Kahn would have reacted to all of this.

“You think I Shao Kahn, overlord of Hell, need recognition from your puny council? Either bow to my power, or be destroyed!” said the imaginary Shao Kahn, one of the old overlords of Hell.

Getting inspired by the imaginary Shao Kahn, Naruto said to Jin Wuya who was sitting next to him, “Honestly, if they don’t come to a conclusion, I really would go berserk and kill every one of them… except for the speaker, she’s hot. And strangely enough, she revealed to me that she likes the fiery birds in human form.”

“Yeah, yeah, conquered another woman, whatever—wait what?” the crow looked at the demon hopefully, “I hope you put in a good word for me.” The crow looked at the demon expectantly.

“Of course.” Naruto nodded.

Nodding in appreciation, the crow told Naruto to have some more patience. “Don’t worry. Just tolerate this for today. If they don’t arrive on a decision, feel free to cause as much destruction as you need.”

Naruto grinned after getting that reply. ‘Really? Acting as your mate’s wing man?’ Yamato called mentally, ‘I am so proud of you, these are the good karma Naruto.’

Naruto agreed. ‘Indeed.’ He replied to his sword in a wise tone.

* * *

(Back to the battle in the human world.)

While yesterday was a stalemate, today is anything but.

The problem is that Shikamaru is going against two villages, who are actually deploying their entire force for this operation.

He however, has only half of the Leaf, and quarter of the Sand’s forces. So, today’s battle is turning out to be a brutal and bloody a fare, in his enemy’s favor.

“Shikamaru, what should be our next move?” one of the Jonin asked Nara.

Though almost all the Jonin who are present within his camp are older than him, he has managed to win their respect, by utilizing his strategies, and holding the enemy at bey for this long.

That is why, the Jonin who asked him such a question, didn’t felt any hesitation in his decisions.

After weighing the options, the Nara spoke. “Contact Choji. Tell him he has the clearance; he’ll know what he has to do after that.”

A Chunin messenger left with the orders.

* * *

(With Choji, in the nearby mountains.)

Choji, after reading the orders, burned the message with his measly fire ability.

He started to expand in size, and ordered the ninjas with him. “Be ready. The timing is important.”

They all nodded. After he expanded fully, the new head of the Akimichi clan crushed the mountain in front of him, while his ninjas exploded the other one located other side of the two fighting armies.

This resulted in the landslide. The forces of Leaf knew about this, so only those Shinobi who were too deep in fighting were the ones who got berried, and most of the Leaf’s forces got out of there unscratched.

* * *

(With Shikamaru.)

The Nara observed the results. ‘This wouldn’t kill everyone, but it should provide us with some even odds.’

* * *

(In the other camp, with Mizukage and Neji.)

“Quite ruthless of him,” Neji said, “I didn’t think he had it in him. Guess all that training with snakes paid off.”

“Yeah, in the lives of our forces.” One of the Jonin said in anger.

“Don’t worry, their losses would be avenged… soon enough.” The Hyuga said mysteriously.

Boooooooommmmmmmmm!

A large explosion shook the battle field. Considering both the armies are kind of separated right now, the question is where exactly the explosion came from?

* * *

(With Shikamaru.)

“Son of a whore!” Shikamaru quickly composed himself.

It is better to let those feelings out, rather than bottle them up. Now, he must think a way out of this.

‘and I’ll need to hunt the saboteur as well.’

* * *

(In Mei’s camp.)

“See?” said the Hyuga, watching the smoke in the enemy’s camp.

“Mind telling me why didn’t you do this until now?”

As the Hyuga began to explain, in the distant camp of the Leaf, one section containing supplies is releasing smoke in the sky.

“I didn’t think that this battle would progress this far.”

“Indeed, measures like these are often the deterrence. After all, we all could have been sneaking around, killing each other.”

One of the older Jonin from the Cloud nodded. “There’s a reason why the Shinobi wars are conducted like these.”

“What is surprising for me however,” a Jonin from the Mist said, “Both of these attacks were done by the Shinobi from Leaf. I thought they were soft.”

“Yeah right. Village which was created by monsters like first Hokage, and Madara, produced monsters like Danzo and Third, terrors like Orochimaru and Itachi… they are soft.” Said another Jonin.

“Ahem.” Mei interrupted the brewing argument. “Let’s take advantage of this. We’re all rattled, but they are as well. Whoever recovers first, would get the edge!”

“Right!” they all nodded.

* * *

(Back in Hell, with increasingly annoyed Naruto.)

At this point, the demon is annoyed, but for a change, Jin Wuya and Elena were also getting fed up with the stalling tactics of the council.

“At this rate, they would end up keeping us here for another day…” Jin Wuya’s prediction came true, and the matter remains unresolved for another day.

The next day, they all gathered there for the third time, to deal with the overlord issue as the demon news has started to call this, but this time, the demon instead of coming in the room peacefully, kicked the door open, and swaggered in as if he owned the place.

Jin Wuya came in his human form, and the speaker is having trouble keeping her eyes off from him. Meanwhile, one of the senior members of the council decided to ask Naruto about his entrance.

“What is the meaning of this? Do you think just because you claim to be an overlord—”

“Ah, I finally understand why you have been stalling for so long.” The council member opened his mouth to reply, but Naruto didn’t give him any chances. “You believe that I don’t have the strength of the overlord, my claim is false.” In the background, Jin Wuya and speaker of the council sneaked off.

“That is—” the council member tried to say, but Naruto is having none of it.

Interrupting the reply once more, Naruto fell to his chair, put his legs on the table, and replied in a board tone, “If you wanted a proof, you should have asked in the first place.”

“What?” the old demon said faintly, unable to deal with this brashness.

“I challenge you, any of you, to fight me. whether in a single combat, or the handicap, I’ll prove to you all why I deserve to be called overlord, and why I deserve your support.” Declared Naruto.

Immediately, the outrage flowed like the beer in a cheap bar, “Preposterous!”

“Do you think yourself so superior?”

“You haven’t lived the fraction of our lives, what makes you think you could do anything in combat against us?”

For ten minutes, Naruto Uzomaki sat silently in a same pose, with legs on the table, listening to the outrage pouring from everywhere. “Lalalalalalala, go fuck yourselves! That is what I have been hearing for past ten minutes.” The demon broke his silence.

Summoning Yamato, he got up, and splits the table in half with just one slash. “You people are cowards. You should be delighted that someone is challenging you for the combat, to prove their strength. Where is your demon pride? Did you sacrifice it as well for your political kingdoms?”

The room was silent after these accusations. Demons, while praising cunning, also praise strength and are overall much more blood thirsty than humans.

To be called cowards, who took their strength seriously as them, was pretty much unthinkable.

“Hahahahahahaha!” one of the neutral members of the council laughed, “You truly have the guts, I’ll give you that, “Overlord” Uzomaki.” the demon with six arms got up from his seat, and walked up to Naruto. “I Himasura, accept your challenge, on behalf of the council, and for the honor of the demons of hell.”

Smiling fiercely, Naruto started to walk along Elena to the ground where the duel would take place, the council is also coming with them. ‘Looks like finally I found someone with real brains among them.’

‘He probably felt stifled or something.’ Yamato thought. The sword is not worried at all.

Compared to Itachi, the Hokages, Shao Kahn, Himasura did not come anywhere close to their threat.

* * *

(With the golden crow, and the speaker.)

Watching all of this from their room, the speaker commented. “I should be there…” the lady trailed off.

“Nah, just relax.” He started to massage her shoulders again. “Just enjoy the show.” Jin muttered in her left ear.

* * *

(On the grounds of duel.)

since a duel between demons has not taken place for last hundred years, this duel received a lot of attention from the demon media, and all the ceremonies of the proper duel are being carried out.

“Who is the challenger?” a voice boomed, which acted as a mediator of the duel. However, the identity of this demon remained hidden, and they did not appear in front of the competitors.

“Naruto Uzomaki, the demon overlord.” Naruto stated.

“Who accepts his challenge?” The voice boomed once more.

“I Himasura, lord of Icey Hell, accept his challenge.” The six-armed lord stated.

“What are the stakes?” asked the voice.

“If the demon Naruto Uzomaki wins, he should be granted the official statis of the overlord, and full support of the demon council behind his every decision.” Elena declared. “Furthermore, he should not be held responsible for the actions of the summoning clans few days ago.”

“However, if the demon Naruto Uzomaki loses, then he must apologize for provoking the natural clans, to attack him on the demon land, and must stay outside of the Hell for five thousand years.” the substitute speaker of the council declared.

“Are these terms acceptable to the combatants?”

“They are.” They both answered simultaneously.

“Very well, read the rules.” The voice ordered.

A demon, who looks like a scribe, started to read the rules.

At that point, Naruto tuned out, to listen to the advice of Yamato.

Besides, the rules were standard anyway, about how you aren’t allowed to leave the ground, outsider assistance is strictly prohibited, and though killing should be avoidable, no one would frown if any of the combatants dies because of the injuries and strain of the duel, and how it is forbidden to attack the opponent after the duel is over… the demon continued in this manner for a while.

‘From his domain, I believe he has power over the ice. By that logic, he wouldn’t be out of his comfort zone in water. Don’t use any water attacks on him, go with fire and lightning, and earth, if you really need to.’

‘Got it.’

“Are both combatants ready?” the voice boomed.

At the indication of readiness, the voice boomed for the final time. “Whoever incapacitates, or kill his opponent first will win. Begin!”

Immediately, Naruto opened with Zap Cannon, looking for the big damage in the start of the battle. Himasura though dodged that attack easily.

Chuckling, he said to Naruto, “I see that sword has informed you about my abilities. I suppose this should be expected, given the name of my domain.”

“Yeah?” Naruto was not getting the point of this chat.

“But you forget. The air has all the components for creating water, and ice.”

Naruto avoided getting skewered by sharp looking ice shards, which the demon with six arms is sending his way with the flick of his three wrists.

Since Naruto left the place where Himasura was attacking, Naruto decides that it is the time for retaliation, as the demon noble would take few seconds to reorient himself for his position.

That is why, he ended up bombarding Himasura with Zap Cannon and Charge Beam, which the large demon barely was avoiding. One of his Charge Beams came too close, but Himasura just created an ice sword, and flicked it away from himself, shattering the sword in the process.

These shards, again ended up coming for Naruto.

‘I see. If I don’t do something about his footing, he’ll just continue to avoid me.’ making sure that the other demon was distracted, Himasura stomped on the ground, covering the ground where they were fighting on, with a thick sheet of ice.

This robbed Naruto of his speed. He could have focused his demon energy on the soles of his feet to keep himself anchored on the slippery ice, but he has not found a way to control it to such an extent that his shoes would not melt immediately.

Considering he is fighting on ice, Naruto decided that his shoes are currently more important, to make sure his feet do not go num from the cold. So, he revealed his next card.

Teleporting in a flash of gold, Naruto finally struck the six-armed demon with Thunder Punch, covering his head with the spark of electricity, and stunning him for a moment.

Himasura tried really hard to get back into the fight, but after Naruto revealed his teleportation, he simply didn’t have a chance. Fire Blasts came for him from various directions constantly, while lightning arcs across the ice at him from another.

Unable to keep up with this barrage, he finally received two Zap Cannons, and one Charge Beam, while the Fire Blast scorched his flank.

Sparking with electricity, and burned from the heat of the blast, he lays in the middle of his own melting ice field, unable to continue anymore.

As it becomes clear that Himasura is not capable to continue, the voice boomed. “Naruto Uzomaki, wins.”

Naruto just shook his head. ‘Did you saw that?’

‘I did.’ Came Yamato’s unimpressed reply.

‘He was unable to keep up with the teleportation. I admit, this is a rather difficult challenge, but you saw yourself. The humans gave me a better challenge than this!’

‘Looks like he only practiced the theory and tactics, probably didn’t receive any challengers for his territory either.’ If Yamato had a human form, he would have been shaking his head in disappointment right now.

‘Yeah. Resulting in great strategies, but poor ability to keep up when they failed.’

This may have disappointed Yamato and Naruto, but this earned him the full support of the council, as well as the admiration of the demons who were watching this duel from their home, so helpfully provided by star and Disney corporation.

Because the demons may have been losing their edge in the recent years, they still respected the strength above all, politician or not.

He also unknowingly caused the resurgence of the ancient demon creeds of power, cunning, and ambition back to the modern-day demon world.

* * *

(Back in the council room.)

Naruto is now seated at the head of the new table, (Which was replaced since he split the last one in two,) he is declaring his intentions now.

“In short,” he said in conclusion, “Continue to run as you were before, just be ready if I need you, or your expertise.”

All the members of the council nodded at this. Essentially, their territories and political power survived, which they were so afraid of losing.

However, they were thinking of making themselves stronger, since it seems that the combat is the new way of resolving issues, and getting more territory and political power.

* * *

(In some other room.)

These occupants looked to be busy, we shall leave them to their devices, since the Narrator believes that you are capable of filling the blanks on your own, and it’ll trump whatever this narrator comes up with…

* * *

(In the human world, with Shikamaru Nara.)

This is the third day of this battle. Dew to the losses suffered yesterday, and today, the containers B and Yugito are finally getting involved in the battle.

Watching as they decimated his forces, Shikamaru wonders what final moves he could pull off before his impending loss.

Because at this point, unless he receives some reinforcement as a lucky break, it doesn’t look like that he would be able to hold the enemy anymore.

Miraculously enough, he received those enforcements, in a form of Hidden Rock, who took full advantage of the enemies surprise, and their numbers, and started to eliminate Shinobi left and right.

The Nara looked around. He saw that dew to the chaos on both sides, no one is paying any attention to him either.

The containers are also busy holding the tide of Rock’s forces from crushing their army, dew to their surprise attack.

He closed his eyes. ‘Let’s just hope this gamble would pay off.’ He started to gather the natural energy, just like the snakes taught him through their brutal training.

Five minutes later, he opened his eyes, which are now slitted like a snake, and he found the biggest source of Chakra through the sensory abilities of the sage mode.

Frowning in concentration and making the necessary hand signs, Shikamaru fired a small sharp spear entirely made of shadows at the back of Killer B.

The container, not paying attention to his back at that time, received the full brunt of the attack, and the spear came out of the other side, greatly damaging the heart of B, and dissipating afterwards.

* * *

(In the medical camp.)

Neji and Mei are observing the condition of Killer B. the Hyuga is in a panic mode. “Dammit. He’s totally gonna blame me. What am I supposed to do?”

“First of all, stop shouting in the medical area.” A medic of the cloud, who has been the veteran of the third Shinobi war ordered Neji, then began to give the statis report about B’s health.

“His heart is greatly damaged. As he is now, the fact that he is a demon container is the only reason why he’s alive at this point. short of convincing Tsunade to try her hands at this, which I doubt she’ll do, he’s not gonna pull off this time.” This medic has treated both the A and B brothers, so he is familiar with their determination.

But determination and grit can only take you so far, when your organs themselves have reached their limit in their capacity of enduring damage.

This started another bout of panic for Neji, which got augmented when he saw a demon gate outside of the medical tent.

“Why of all times?” he muttered in a whining tone.

“Hayya!” Naruto declared, and stepped into the medical tent.

He saw Neji and Mei, and greeted them happily. “Hahahaha! Even the probability bends before Naruto Uzomaki, as the gate opened write where my friends and allies were located!”

“Don’t forget the beautiful woman.” Yamato reminded.

“Ah yes. How can I forget—” he finally noticed Killer B, and his condition. “What… happened?” It was as if all the strength left his voice.

They all left the tent, to leave B in peace, as the medic told them that he’ll call them if B wakes up. meanwhile, Naruto received the explanation from Neji with a solemn expression.

“and I totally blame myself for this. I should have kept an eye on him—”

Slap!

“Got it out of your system?” Naruto asked gently.

“Y- yeah.” Neji rubbed his tender cheek in shock.

“Good then.” Said the demon.

“Apparently, the Tsuchikage has also chose his side.” Mei informed him, her usual seductive tone missing entirely.

As a past demon container himself, she understands that Naruto will not have the coming few days easy, and whatever her past experiences, where a mad demon container tormented her land, it was the help of a demon container who in the end, helped her to gain the position of Mizukage.

“Well, then I do hope he is prepared for what’s coming his way.” Said Naruto darkly. This statement is punctuated by the clear sky and a setting sun, as well as missing clouds which failed to thunder.

Ten minutes later, the medic called Naruto inside, as B has woken up, and requested the presence of Naruto when the medic told him about his return, to meet him alone.

“Hay man.” The demon didn’t have anything better than that to say.

“Naruto.” The demon winced. B’s voice sounded so weak, containing none of his usual energy.

The demon didn’t say anything further. “Don’t blame yourself, Naruto.”

“But—”

“Do you dare to say that you would have never endangered me?” B asked hoarsely, “You can’t insult all the Shinobi who have died in this battle like that.”

he was about to say something, but the demon closed his mouth. “Listen. Jyuki told me, no amount of healing will save me.”

“I could always bring Tsunade here, force her to—”

“Won’t work.” Said the lord eight with finality.

“Why?” Naruto asked helplessly.

“She can’t repair a torn heart.” B said solemnly. “I should be dead at this point, but only the efforts of Jyuki and the medics is keeping me alive, so I can have this one final wish.”

“But she healed me, when—”

“The damage probably was not as bad as my own.” This silenced Naruto once more. He has no way of proving that.

“My last wish is, extract my soul, absorb it’s strength, as a final measly gift to you.”

“What are you saying, man? I could never do that to you.” the demon reeled back in shock.

“Please don’t deny me my last… wish…” B finally lost his strength to speak, and fell unconscious once more.

Walking out of the tent, Yamato spoke to Naruto. “What are you gonna do?”

Naruto didn’t answer.

“You should grant his wish.” Said the demon blade.

“Oh yeah?” for the first time since Naruto acquired him, Naruto got furious with his sword. “And what, use him like so many people as I have done until now?”

“Listen to yourself! He has lost the will to live. Besides, as a demon, you should appreciate this last gift he is giving to you. Any demon would have been moved to tears by this gesture!” Yamato said, equally furiously.

“Can I look his brother in his eyes after doing that?” Naruto asked, after the rage was drained out of him.

“Oh, for the love of… you can teleport, can’t you? bring him here.” Honestly, why do the wielders lose their head in their emotions? Despite serving as a sword to many powerful wielders in the past, Yamato doesn’t understand that yet.

Naruto’s lips pardoned in a smile, “Thanks Yamato.”

“No problem, now just go already.”

In a flash of gold, Naruto disappeared from the outside of the tent.

* * *

(Twenty rage filled, and stressful minutes later…)

The Raikage observed his brother. At this moment, B opened his eyes once more. “Big bro?”

“Yes…” large amounts of tears fell from A’s eyes. “You sure you want to go through that?”

If B was in a normal condition, A would have grabbed his shoulders, and shaken him to get the answers. But the Raikage does not dare to touch B in his current condition.

“I am. You should know, why.”

Of course, he knew.

Even though B got the respect of the people of Cloud, he couldn’t change the line of thinking regarding himself, to be considered more than a weapon.

A himself is guilty on his brother’s behalf, to think like that.

Naruto walked next to him. “Listen. It might take me a while, but I can track his soul a year after his death.” The demon whispered, “Then it’ll be a small matter to turn him into a demon like myself, and it won’t be dangerous for him either.”

“You sure?” the Raikage asked him in a grumbling tone.

“I am.” For the first time since he saw B lying wounded on a bed, Naruto sounded confident.

“Very well,” he said a little bit louder. “You have my blessings, fulfill his last wish.”

Naruto moved next to Killer B, and began to extract his soul. Not wanting to see the entire spectacle, the Raikage leaves the room.

* * *

(Ten minutes later…)

Naruto was done with the extraction process just after the minute of A’s leaving. But He just stared at the body of B for the last ten minutes in shock.

Finally, he moved, cracked his back, and started to leave the room.

The Raikage was waiting for him outside, ready to leave. “So, what will you do now?”

“Complete annihilation.” Was the simple answer of the demon, as Naruto teleported A to his office, and teleported himself to the Land of Moon, to raise hell in the name of his dead friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The meaning of "Him" in Sanskrit is ice, that is why you'll see it on himalayas, which literally means the home of ice.
> 
> Asuras are the ancient demons who fought with gods in the tales of ancient India.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37.

Returning the pain.

(With Shikamaru Nara.)

“So, with the reinforcements, you will be able to drive these invaders away from my land?” king Michiru asked.

“Yes. They aren’t ready to face us. They still have the numbers on their side, but we have better position.” Said Shikamaru.

“Very well.” The king nodded. “I shall take my leave now,” at the nod of Shikamaru he turned around and started to walk down from the rooftop of his castle. “Who knows what those advisers may have cooked up in my absence?” he muttered.

However, both of them didn’t realize that they were being observed. The demon eyes the retreating king with disdain. ‘It was only because of my help that you became a king, and now you dare to oppose me, and took my friend from me?’

‘Aren’t we full of ourselves?’ Yamato didn’t have the mercy for Naruto’s ego, even if he’s still recovering from the loss of B.

Watching as the king leaves safely, since it was his idea in the first place to meet secretly to make sure that there aren’t any spies in the court, Shikamaru was about to jump from the roof, and disappear.

However, the demon walked up to him, and clapped his shoulders, as if they are good buddies. “Hayya!” Naruto greeted cheerfully.

Immediately getting enraged by the appearance of the killer of his Sensei, Shikamaru tried to stab Naruto with the Kunai hidden within his sleeves. However, the demon evaded the attempt, and swiped the knife away from his hand by hitting his palm.

“Why such hostility? Aren’t we friends?” the demon asked with an easy smile.

“I can never be friends with likes of you!” Shikamaru said hotly, letting go of his detached manner.

“Come on, don’t be like that? we had such a great time in the academy. If it weren’t for me, your mom would have skinned you alive.” Naruto’s tone lost its friendliness for a moment.

“If it weren’t for you, my mom wouldn’t be grieving!” retorted the Nara.

“Be grateful that at least you have one parent to grieve.” The demon said with a Sommer tone.

“Or what? Would you kill her as well?” Shikamaru asked, a challenge present in his voice.

“Considering you all are hellbent in opposing me, yes.” Naruto replied, after few seconds of consideration.

“Hmhmhmhmhm. If only I would give you the chance.” He chuckled.

“What?” Naruto is surprised with this sudden confidence.

“While you were busy exchanging insults with me, I was gathering the natural energy around myself. Once I get into the sage mode, I’ll crush you like a rotten orange pulp!” declared Shikamaru.

“Leave the orange out of this! He has served me well for many years loyally.” Naruto grabbed Shikamaru, and throws him to the ground. “Hahahahahahaha!” he laughed at the surprised look on his face.

“What? Did you thought that I’ll give you the chance to enter into the sage mode? You might have learned to gather the energy, but you left the snakes before you could shorten the time, didn’t you?” Naruto sneered at his opponent on the ground.

“H- how—” Shikamaru lost whatever confidence he was showing earlier.

“Neji.” Naruto said the name, as if it explained everything.

“Damn that Hyuga bastard!” Shikamaru slammed his hand on the roof in frustration.

“For insulting him, you receive a prize: a kick from yours truly!” Naruto followed up what he said, kicking Shikamaru on his stomach.

However, that kick turned out to be just a starting of a beating, in which Shikamaru was turned black and blue by the demon, and at the end of it, he remained on the ground with bruises, losing the natural energy which he gathered.

Just when he was about to start the process again, (He is not giving up so easily,) he saw Naruto disappearing right in front of his eyes.

No smoke, flames, wind, nothing. the demon was present there at one moment, the very next moment, he was gone.

“Where did he disappeared to?” muttered Nara.

“Look inside, for the answer is hidden within.”

After three seconds later, Shikamaru finally processes that cryptic statement came from his own mouth.

“What, what did you do to me!” he asked in horror.

“Oh, nothing much.” He felt his own voice and mouth answering his question, “I am just testing my burgeoning demon abilities.”

“Do you think I am some test dummy? Get out of my body!” the Snake Sage ordered.

“No.”

This arguing by himself continued on as “Shikamaru” left the roof.

All the way to where some Chunin came to report to “Shikamaru”.

“And thus, the area is secured.” The Chunin finally finished his report, while his partner nods nearby in approval.

They both were the desk Chunin, in short, the bureaucracy which runs the government of Leaf. Regular Shinobi hate them with intense passion, since they have penchant for sticking to the rules and regulation, while as their job, the regular forces broke them on the daily bases.

Naturally, they even have the standards on making a perfect report, both written and verbal, and the verbal one was just demonstrated here.

“As a prize for such a perfect report,” “Shikamaru” said, while the inner voice hollered at him to stop, “You deserve a death.”

“What?” this was the only thing which the Chunin said as the last words on this world, as the shadow of “Shikamaru” strangled him.

His partner tried to get away, but he only received a spinning facebuster for his trouble.

A group of Chunin however watched all of this happening from the distance, so they left to report this to someone who can handle their commander.

* * *

(With Choji.)

The large head of the Akimichi clan was stuffing himself with food, to regain the strength which he spent today. Even though he grew to the size of a boss summon, crushing a mountain takes a lot of strength, coupled with the techniques of his clan which also demands more energy than normal, he is feeling famished after the battle.

Just as he was starting to feel something else instead of the gnawing hunger, some Chunin ran into his tent, looking very haggard.

“What—” he didn’t have a chance to ask what happened to them, as one of them immediately began to speak.

“Sir, commander Shikamaru has gone mad!”

“What?” in his surprise, Choji couldn’t say anything else.

Taking his surprise as disbelief, the Chunin continues. “We all saw how one of the patrol groups reported to him, and he used a strange Tijutsu move on one, while the other one was strangled by his shadow.”

“Very well.” He got up, and leaves with the Chunin to investigate.

He found Shikamaru just out of the capital, where Choji knew he went to talk with the king.

“Shikamaru!”

However, it was as if something extended from his hand, and stabbed into Choji’s chest, and returned to its normal size. As Shikamaru got closer, Choji collapsed, and sees Yamato in his hand.

He died without understanding what happened.

“You, you… you killed my friend!” Shikamaru lost whatever sanity he has left.

The death of Asuma, the mental scars of his father’s death, and now Choji’s death by his own hands… it all pushed him over the edge. “Hahahahaha! I’ll kill you; I’ll kill you!”

He started to byte and scratch his own body.

The demon finally appeared out of Shikamaru’s body. “Excellent. You finally have some experience how I felt when you murdered B!”

“Haaaaah… gaaaaaaa!” Shikamaru is no longer capable of normal speech.

Seeing him outside, also fueled his madness, and he attacked Naruto without considering his own safety.

Naruto though, didn’t cared much. He just pointed his finger at Shikamaru’s head… and with a Death Beam, the life of Shikamaru Nara came to an end.

“Where to now?” a sudden voice asked.

“Ah, we need to retrieve a kid.” Naruto answered.

* * *

(With Michiru.)

The king, after taking care of all the responsibilities, (And growing tired of the chatter of his “Advisers,”) ended the court early, and retired to his personal chambers.

His rest though, is interrupted in a most unwelcomed manner. “Boo yeah!” a voice roared.

Startled, he fell off from his bed. The voice laughed. “Ah man, look at you. got slimmed down I see.”

The king finally looked at the intruder. “Impossible, you shouldn’t be here!”

“Why? Because those Leaf bastards promised you or something?” the demon dangles a child. “Look what I have for you.”

“My son—” he reached for him.

The prince struggled a lot, but with a loud pop, Naruto crushed his head. “Is no more.”

“My son, noooo!” fat tears started to fall from the eyes of Michiru.

Michiru lunged at Naruto, but his anger is no match against the demon. “Don’t worry.” Expertly handling the king, as he transforms into his demon form, Naruto breaks through the sealing, and roof, and is now hovering above the capital of the Land of Moon, the king dangling from one hand, while he charges Galick Gun in his other hand.

“It is true that I wanted the resources of your land. It would have been better if you would have cooperated with me. But you know what? The price is too much for all of this.” He looks around the capital, and the terrified faces who are staring at him. “And I have already paid it…” the demon whispered. “It is your turn.”

“No… nooooooo!” the king struggled in his grasp.

“Galick Gun, fire!”

The beam packed with destructive energy approached the city below, and exploded just before colliding with the ground, devastating everything, and leaving a large crater in its wake.

Naruto transforms to his human form, and breaks the neck of Michiru.

The body of the king is only one which is intact, the rest having been vaporized earlier.

“Soooo! Finally got what you’ve wanted?” asked Yamato.

“Yeah.”

“You sound exhausted.” Noted the sword.

“I just wanna curl up somewhere, and sleep for a real long time…”

The plans of sleep were quashed, since clapping sounds were coming from behind him. ‘Someone survived that? How? This person should have been vaporized by this point.’

Turning around quickly, Naruto sees that an old man, adorned with various jewels, and having a wing of the peacock hanging from his hare, was the one who was clapping just now.

“Hmhmhmhmhm. Hahahahaha! What a wonderful performance. 8 out of ten.” He scored after the praise.

Getting annoyed at the unwanted ranking, Naruto fires the Death Beam at the old man, which he just deflected with a finger.

‘The fuck?’ the demon stared at the old man dumbfounded.

“Ooooh. Hostile! Why so much anger? Aren’t those who have wronged you now dead?” he asked.

“Maybe because I didn’t expect some old bastard to survive.” The demon said frankly.

The old man blushed, traumatizing Naruto. “What can I say? These things happen constantly around me. After all, I am such a wonderful genius!”

‘Hahahahahaha! Someone who’s fuller of himself than you.’ Yamato laughed.

However, Naruto’s attention is on the fact that the sun appears to have stopped moving.

It is very close to the sunset, so why is it something like this is happening here? ‘Could it be a hallucination? I don’t feel anything wrong with my head though.’

The demon considers another angle. ‘Could it be… that this old man somehow stopped the time?’

To confirm this theory, Naruto brings a watch out of his storage dimension. The questions of why doesn’t he wear it on like everyone aside, he looked at the time… the hands of the clock are not moving at all.

“Feh. It could be, that this watch has gone bad or something.” Naruto was not willing to believe something so spectacular.

“You shouldn’t doubt it like that.” the old man chastised.

“Why?”

“For one, using the time like this is not exactly that strange in the demon world, leaving those immortal bastards aside.” The old man grimaced. “But of course, none of them can have such a control over like I do.”

“But forget all about it! Tell me how you feel?” he asked the demon.

“Like an old limp dick is hoping to satisfy a girl?”

“What?” the expression of that old man’s face twisted in rage. “I have you know that this old one has still enough vigor to satisfy any woman!”

To prove this point, he started to remove his pants. “Please don’t go so far, I believe you!” seeing that his words were not having any effect, Naruto continues to try to avert the disaster which he has brought on himself. “I apologize, I’ll never question your performance again!”

“Well, if you apologize, then fine.” The old man, after adjusting his pants a little, (and down there,) conjures up a recliner, and began to relax.

“So, let’s start this again. How do you feel?”

“Why do you wanna know this? What are you? a psychiatrist?”

“Oh no. I tried for that, but my license was removed… because of the questionable methods. I really don’t see how letting people have an orgy is questionable. Those prudes, I’m just gonna get them one of these days, you’ll see!” he ranted about the unfairness.

“Okay, I… strangely don’t feel that good.” Confessed Naruto.

“A hollow feeling.” The tone of the old man shifted entirely. He sounded very serious now. “A word of advice kid. You shouldn’t pursue the revenge. It won’t end well for you.” the recliner started to disappear along with the old man, and the sun started to move in the sky once more.

“After all, we do need you to take out those damned bugs.” These were the last words by him, said with a perfectly punchable smiling face.

* * *

(In the Alliance’s camp.)

The explosion from the capital managed to reach here as well, as some people lost their footing dew to it. ‘I never got to witness his power from close. It just goes to show that my choice all those years ago… was absolutely correct… hahahahahahahaha!’

Neji turned on his Byakugan once more, to observe everything, since he has to turn it off because of the bright light of Naruto’s explosion.

He looked at the enemy camp, and the faces of the Shinobi there. ‘They all look like they’re getting ready to leave. very dispirited too.’

* * *

(With Rock Shinobi.)

The forces of Leaf and Sand saw how the Hidden Rock packed everything, and is now leaving, just as quickly as they arrived.

Some Shinobi asked them about it.

“Look, the commander of your forces is already dead in that explosion. Your supplies are blown up, and you are in no condition to fight, especially if Uzomaki is here.”

“Yeah,” another Chunin from nearby chimed, “At this point, you should leave, and form another strategy, since trying to save that kingdom has clearly turned out to be a failure.”

Of course, inside their hearts, the ninjas of Rock were laughing at the misfortune of Leaf and Sand… but mostly Leaf, especially because of the losses they have suffered from their hand in the previous war.

Their reputation never recovered from the beating, and the business coming their way was also slowed down for a while.

Thankfully, this didn’t last long.

The Jonin who were alive, and have taken the command in Shikamaru’s absence, decided to leave as well.

Neji, of course, was absolutely right thinking about their preparations of leaving.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38.

New target.

(In Hokage’s office, Hidden Leaf.)

The report of the operation in Land of Moon is sitting on Tsunade’s desk, after she got done reading it.

The report was delivered by the Jonin who returned from the operation, including the accounts of all the Shinobi who went there. Naturally, reading such a large report is impossible, so the Hokage got the summarized version.

Still, it was enough to tell her that things didn’t turned out the way they were hoping for. ‘On top of that, we lost our sage.’ She shook her head. ‘Didn’t even get a chance of properly utilizing his sage mode against the enemy.’

Done with the report and her ruminations, she called Shizune, it is time to convene the council.

* * *

(Outside of the Elemental Nations, in the office of the general.)

Colonel Wei Yi and general Kasparov were busy playing a game of poker, where for once the general was winning.

‘Of course, he’s winning. When you have a face carved with stone, what can you do?’ Wei Yi thought in amusement.

Usually, he completely trounces the general in any board game in which he challenges him. Chess, go, or shogi of which he has rather limited experience, he lost them all.

However, the colonel is finding out that the general is for some reason, really good with card games, as well as luck-based games.

‘Most likely blessed by the gods of probability.’ Wei Yi hated his math classes because of that topic for a while. He still to this day doesn’t understand the probability, it is a wonder that he even managed to pass his exams that year.

Footsteps sounded outside, and the general looked at the door, as it was opened and the captain walked in.

“Ah captain. Come, come.” The general welcomed in a good mood.

‘Hm. judging from his mood, he is winning.’ Captain Ken Thompson deduced, while looking at the colonel who looks like he is experiencing bad flashbacks to the school days or something.

“I have the latest reports from the Elemental Nations.” The captain said, while taking out the reports from the suitcase which he carries with himself.

He puts the reports on the table for the inspection of colonel and the general.

After they were done with perusing the reports, the general sighed. “So, the war did break out there huh?”

“Not only that, Naruto Uzomaki became the new overlord.” The captain explained.

“That is new. We know from our interactions with demons that the overlords haven’t appeared for two thousand years.” Said the general.

“Yes,” the colonel spoke then, “But only the old ones. it has been a really long time since a new one has appeared.”

After considering something, the colonel speaks once more. “The main question is, did the appearance of this overlord impacts the policy of the demons towards us? I understand that they do wield a lot of influence among them.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” the captain assured. “Word through the grapevine is that the Uzomaki prefers to leave the politics to the council mostly, not keen to interfere much.” The captain silently checks off another one of those fraises which he wanted to use always.

“Why interfere with something when it has been running for two thousand years without any problems, eh?” at the statement of general, both of them nodded.

“Unfortunately, the order seems to have gone underground.” The captain’s tone betrayed his frustration, “No amount of searching has revealed their whereabouts, or their plans.”

* * *

(In a mountainous terrain.)

A man approaches the something which by looks appears to be a monastery of some kind. The man looks like an average person, someone whom people of this area would call “A city rat.”

As he got closer and closer, someone appeared from the air, and landed in front of this person. He appears to be wearing robes of this monastery, and appears to be a guard of some sort.

“Halt! Who dares to approach the sect of absolute devastation?” the guard asked in a domineering manner.

But in reality, this only looks like a monastery. It actually is the headquarters of the sect of immortals, of which even the ancient sword like Yamato does not dares to offend. They have strange techniques, sealings, and various ways to refine the humans and weapons alike, so the demons just avoid them whenever possible.

However, this man is not worried at all. With an easy smile, he reveals his intentions of coming here. “I wish to speak with the sect leader.”

He still didn’t give his name though.

“Oh yeah? Do you think that the illustrious sect leader, the Evil Blood Orchid would speak with rabbles like you, just because you say so?” the guard glared at him.

The man just shook his head. He looked at the disciple blocking his path. “So, is that what he’s calling himself now?”

For the disciple who is receiving such a look, he felt as if the sun in the sky dimmed, clouds appeared, and thunder threatened to rip his head from inside.

Realizing that he has offended someone way beyond his statis, he quickly clasps his hands and gave a deep bow to the average looking man. “Please forgive this disciple, junior is very sorry to insult senior like that.”

Receiving such respect, the man smiled. The disciple after few more words of apology, lead this man to the entry of the sect, where as soon as he stepped inside, a bell started to toll.

According to the sect’s ritual, this would only happen if some illustrious member of the senior generation returned after many years, or in the case of the patriarch’s return, who established the sect’s branch many years ago.

‘It is a good thing that he doesn’t appears to be a cruel soul.’ The disciple considers himself to be lucky to get away with a simple apology.

* * *

(Fifteen minutes later…)

after the bell’s toll reached the ears of the sect leader, he abandoned his meditation, and immediately reached to the room which is used for the meeting, where he greeted the mysterious man.

“Greetings lord Lee!” he clasped his hands and bowed.

Lee nodded at the greeting. “So. Evil Red Orchid, huh?”

The sect leader’s face flushed in embarrassment. “Due to my rampage, and my blood red hair, they called me red devil. So, I decided to name myself that.”

With all these matters cleared, the Orchid asked. “Master, but surely you didn’t return here just because of my name?”

“Of course not.”

“Then…” the sect leader was puzzled.

“The infection in the system is increasing, it’s defensive response would also intensify in the future.” Explained lord Lee.

“Hm. I shouldn’t send the disciples outside then; it would be best if I put the sect in a lockdown for a while.” The sect leader said after considering the information.

“Indeed. But this is not all. He of the ten avatars returned, and met the demon.” The sect patriarch gave another piece of news.

“Oh.” The Orchid didn’t know how to react after hearing this news.

“Things are getting hot. I am sure these upcoming few years going to be quite amusing, hahahahaha!” the patriarch laughed.

“Err…” The Orchid wanted to stop his master from walking on this dangerous path, but didn’t know how he could do that.

“Not to mention, it’ll be amusing to screw the plans of him a little. After all, many ages ago, he did the same to me. I wonder how the demon is going to deal with all of this?”

Orchid just sighed. His master is always like this whenever an opportunity to amuse himself appears, or a chance to take revenge for the past grievances.

* * *

(Storm Cloud Alliance, with Naruto and his allies.)

Naruto, the public enemy number one in the world according to the Leaf, Sand, and now recently Rock, is trying to decide which should be his next target with both of the Kages present.

“So, what do you think?” the demon asked for the opinion of his allies.

“Yeah, it is kind of surprising how fast the small villages pulled out.” A said.

“Indeed. I thought that Grass would at least involve itself, but they too decided not to bother.”   
Mei noted.

“Not exactly what I was asking, but still good news.” The demon smirked.

“What were you asking then?” asked the Mizukage.

“What should be the next target, of course!” the demon clarified.

“Oh that. target the Leaf of course.” the Mizukage stated confidently.

“Nah, Sand would be a better option.” Raikage puts forward his own suggestion.

“Neither of them are good enough.” Naruto shot down both of those ideas.

“What?” Mei was shocked, how could he shoot such a wonderful idea?

“Explain.” Raikage thundered.

But considering that he sounds like that always, Naruto didn’t pay it too much attention.

“Let’s start with Leaf. I already screwed them multiple times in this past year, and now they have clamp down their defenses tighter than a virgin.”

Both Kages exchanged a look among themselves, while Yamato roared in laughter.

“Sand… is a desert. It is a really stupid idea to invade a desert in my opinion, unless you have something really unfair, like mass teleportation. Which I still haven’t managed to crack.” He hist the last point, since he took it badly that he couldn’t solve a sealing problem.

“Then what do you suggest?” Mizukage asked.

“Rock.”

Both Kages raised their eyebrows. “Ha! Look at that, they are learning the finer points of demon behaviors!” Yamato praised.

“Of course, they are, do you know whose allies they are?” Naruto puffed up.

“Ahem. Please try to keep on track.” Mizukage asked, with some sort of acid cloud in the background.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. You see, for all their statis of hidden village, they haven’t gotten a taste of invasion from a demon. They aren’t prepared to deal with me at all.” Naruto grinned evilly.

“So, you do plan to participate this time?” Raikage asked.

“Yeah.” Confirmed the demon. 

Both Kages considered this option. “Very well. Rock it is. I do hope that we do have enough time to plan for the ruff area of that village?” Raikage asked.

“You do have at least few weeks. Besides, I’ll need some time for myself as well, to prepare a back-up plan which would cause enough problems for our enemies, and buy time for us if we need it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that I am currently moving from my house, so I won't have the access to the internet for a while. So the updates will be stopping for at least two or three days.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39.

Countermoves.

(In the Leaf, council meeting.)

Tsunade takes a sip of water, as the discussion of the council continues around her.

As the elders proved to be useless in current time, Danzo is the only surviving member of the old council, being also the oldest member there.

Many plans were suggested, and rejected. However, Orochimaru sitting next to Tsunade, realized something. “All the plans are useless.” He spoke, interrupting the discussion.

“What?” asked all the council members, not appreciating such a negative outlook.

Everyone is baffled by this statement, so he cleared it for them. “Our plans are useless, until we don’t cripple the support of Uzomaki first.”

“However, the demon himself has proven on more than one occasion that he is strong enough to not need any support.” Danzo countered the point.

Not because he disagreed with the mad scientist, because he wanted to see where exactly Orochimaru’s thoughts were leading him too.

“That is true. But tell me, no matter how strong, do you think he’ll last long if we all ganged up on him? Right now, we’re dealing with too many problems. But if we can separate him from Yamato, and continuously try to ware him out, his stamina would run out sooner or later.” Orochimaru said, licking his lips to reduce their dryness.

Seeing everyone’s faces, he continued. “Yes, a battle of attrition. But this is the only option which seems to be correct for us.”

“I agree with him.” Tsunade puts the glass down, “This will be the hardest battle we might fight, but we’ll need to grit our teeth, and push on.”

“Very well.” Another member of the council said. “We do need to find de-- Uzomaki’s next target.”

The council member was just about to call Naruto a demon, but dew to remembering Tsunade’s ruling that they do need to keep their emotions in check, changed his wording at the very last moment.

“I believe that since the armies of the nations have been involved already once, we should think along those lines.” A member of the Nara clan stated, filling in the place of Shikamaru.

“Indeed. How about Sand? During this entire fiasco, they haven’t been attacked yet by Uzomaki for once.” The Nara substitute felt it to be unfair. “As a result, they probably won’t be expecting an attack from him.”

“I don’t think so.” The idea was shot down by Orochimaru immediately. “If we were thinking about Naruto himself alone, that might be possible. But since we are discussing armies, I don’t think that would be happening.”

“Why?”

“Taking an army through the desert is a foolish gamble.” Orochimaru said with a sneer.

Danzo nodded immediately, as everyone finally realized the Sannin’s point.

They thought about the next target. “What about the Leaf?”

Everyone winced at that suggestion. The Jonin who suggested this possibility, got glairs for such a thought, but before anyone could present any arguments in favor or against the suggestion, someone unnoticed by this point spoke.

“He won’t be coming here with an army.”

They all looked where once upon a time, the head of the Uchiha clan used to sit. Now the last remaining Uchiha occupies that place, an amused smirk on his face watching their little discussion.

“What do you mean?” some Jonin finally decided to ask.

Sasuke’s expression pinched up, as if he knows something, while the people around him cannot understand. “He has personal business with this place. He won’t be bringing an army here.”

They still were not looking convinced, so Sasuke continues to speak. “Besides, he has already screwed with this place once. He has his fill of amusement with you all for now.”

“As much as it pains me, I agree.” Orochimaru said with an unhappy expression.

“Also? He is a vindictive bastard. Tsuchikage has decided to side with us.” For the first time, Sasuke used a group related word, including himself within the group. However, he still does not consider himself to be the member of Leaf. “He won’t let go of this grudge.”

“Then the target is Hidden Rock.” Orochimaru arrived on a conclusion.

Sasuke nodded, and didn’t said anything else.

“I’ll send a letter to Tsuchikage, informing him about the conclusions we have arrived on. We will need to coordinate the all three armies…”

* * *

(In the Land of Earth, deep inside a mountain.)

Underneath the mountain, Naruto along with some of the Shinobi of Storm Cloud alliance, are putting a contingency plan together, in the words of Naruto.

The mizukage brought all those Shinobi with her who can use the Lava release with her, while participating in this task with her Shinobi as well.

What might be the task, someone may wonder.

“I think we have stoked it enough,” Mei, who is also sweating, came to Naruto who is watching them work, since he has no ability with lava.

“Awesome. Now I must really contain myself from not exploding this…” the demon stopped his hands from twitching.

“Sigh, this is why I argued that you should give the commanding release to the Raikage.” Yamato scolded.

“What are you talking about? That man is even worse than I am.” Naruto imagined Raikage losing control over his temper, and prematurely using his plan in a fit of anger.

“Sadly, it is true.” Mei confirmed.

“Look lady, you are very hot, and quite intelligent. But you really shouldn’t give the command of a volcano to someone who makes statements like “I must really stop myself from exploding this…” or something along those lines.” Yamato gives his sane advice.

While the demon, the Mizukage, and Yamato the sword talked about the issues of a dangerous weapon being in the hands of unstable people, the Shinobi were putting their final touches, looking forward to the feast the demon has promised them after the work.

Why would they need to stoke a volcano though? The answer is simple.

Naruto knows that despite his power, the people against whom he is going to fight in the future, they might be able to incapacitate him, or just destroy him.

What exactly the people who have allied with him would do in that case? They would be forced to suffer, made out to be pariahs in the elemental nations.

So, to avoid that happening, he’ll give his opponents a new problem to consider. With just a simple release, the seal which is keeping the volcano constantly active, and at bey same time, would unlock, and all the pressure building inside of the volcano would release in one big explosion.

Half of the elemental nations would be covered in ashes, and the resulting fallout would give his allies a chance to establishing themselves back in the elemental nations.

While the Shinobi worked, the argument about who should have the control, (Where Yamato supported Raikage, while Mei remains neutral even though she slightly favored Naruto,) came to an end.

“You do know why I am doing this right?” the demon was asking the Mizukage instead. Taking her expression as incomprehension instead of the confusion on the sudden change of topic, Naruto tried to explain it further.

“Look, I understand that this would create problems for you and Raikage as well. But if I were to get incapacitated somehow, or get killed, these three countries would run roughshod over you to appease the anger of their people. But if they have this problem in hand, they won’t be doing that, since they will be busy dealing with the fallout of a volcano explosion.”

“I would also suggest that you put the navy around the islands of the Land of Water. After all, that navy is the reason why no one dared to invade, even during the civil war.”

“What about Raikage? Doesn’t he need to insure his position as well?” Asked Mei.

“His position is already secured as it can get. The simple thing is, that even when the third war came to an end, Cloud never actually stopped expanding their military. Rock, Sand, Leaf, they all did that, so even though they can present a formidable army together, I don’t think that Raikage would have much trouble in dealing with a splintered alliance, if I was taken out of the picture.”

“So much planning for a possibility that may or may not even happen. Why?” Mei asked with a serious tone.

“Because unlike Cloud, where there are many possible candidates for the position of Raikage, Mist does not have the same amount of pool of candidate to draw upon, mostly because the war reduced the Shinobi dew to their death or going rogue.”

After hearing all the explanations, the Mizukage smiled. “Do you think us as kid? A and myself I mean.”

“What?” Naruto is confused with the sudden turn of the conversation.

The Mizukage moved and started to caress Naruto’s cheek. “We both are the Kages of our villages. Of course, we can think about the scenarios which you have just described. And implemented the suggestions which you’ve just told me.” she tapped Naruto’s cheek once more, and said, “People don’t get to the position of a Kage without thinking like that anyway.”

“As if!” the shriek of Yamato broke the spell over Naruto, “I bet there was a lot of seduction involved.” Came the damning scream of Yamato.

“You know, any other woman would be offended and insulted with such insinuations. But a true Kunoichi would think it as a praise.” She smirked sensuously.

“Shameless, this woman is completely shameless! You should never associate with her Naruto.”

“Yeah, but I like the women like her. they are very open to the suggestions… if you know what I mean.” Naruto winked.

“Besides, aren’t you the one who constantly ask me about hooking up with hot girls? So, what suddenly crawled into you?”

Just like that, the atmosphere was once again changed, and Naruto, who is still arguing with Yamato, lead the Shinobi towards the promised feast.

* * *

(In the Hidden Rock, with Anoki.)

The Tsuchikage left his office, to take a flight. He would have gone for a simple walk, but his back doesn’t allow him that much movement these days.

Still, if there is one advantage of Dost Release, then it has to be the fact that even though is movement is not what it used to be, he is still as dangerous as before, and of course, the flights.

While observing the population below, Anoki thought about the proposal which arrived from the Leaf this morning.

The council immediately went in uproar.

“Lord Tsuchikage, helping the alliance of Sand and Leaf to defend the Land of Moon was one thing. But letting them bring their war in our own territory, our own home is going too far!” all the council was in agreement with the sentiment of this one member.

However, the council knew that the Tsuchikage can, and will do whatever he has decided, and no amount of pleading would do anything. So, when he finally had enough of their clamoring, he put his foot down, declared his decision final, and ended the meeting then and there.

‘Fools! They all fail to see the big picture. Hating Leaf for our losses during the previous war is one thing, but literally stacking up the world for that hate is idiotic! Behavior like this is the reason why I haven’t found a successor yet…’ he lamented in his thoughts.

landing nearby a tea shop which he frequented often dew to the owner letting him relax in the back secretly, away from the public’s eye, he ordered his usual blend of tea, and started to think about the young and upcoming Shinobi, who took the world by storm twenty years ago.

‘To think how tragically things would end for him, and his own son is rearing to destroy everything. I realize that even though I resented Minato for killing many of my Shinobi, I respected him as well, a man gotta do whatever he can, to protect his home.’ Taking a sip of the hot tea, he continues to think. ‘But at least he fought to protect something, his son is gonna destroy the world which we know, and that damned hot-headed A, and foolish girl Mizukage refuses to see that.’

* * *

(In the Leaf, with the planning committee.)

As their plans to take Naruto and his faction out continues, Tsunade receives the reply of the Tsuchikage this afternoon.

But they still haven’t arrived on a correct plan to cripple the support of Naruto. Mostly because they all were waiting for the reply of the Tsuchikage, and now that they have his agreement, they can plan properly.

Currently, the two surviving Sannin, and The Darkness of Shinobi were gathered in the Hokage’s office, trying to come up with a solution.

“look,” Tsunade was saying, “we need to make sure that Naruto couldn’t run, and there are two places he’ll go, either Mist or Cloud, and the Cloud is more likely, since they have better chances of fighting against an invasion.”

“by that logic, he should go to Mist, after all, their navy would stop any invasions.”

“that would only happen if one village would do that. even with our rather poor knowledge of battling at sea, we’ll outnumber them, and Cloud wouldn’t be able to provide a support to them.”

“So, we can agree that Naruto will run to the Cloud?” after getting two nods, she continued. “Now we need to think about what can we do to corner him there. Of course, first of all, we’ll need to enter there in the first place.”

“hmm.” The old man hums. “I can do it. With the forces of Root, I should be able to corner him there.”

“And how exactly do you plan to do that?” asked Orochimaru.

“The Raikage would be too busy with war to pay attention to a little intrusion.” If it weren’t for his emotionless face, both Sannin could have sworn that Danzo is very smug about this fact.

“Very well. I have another good news today. The sealing core has finally cracked the formula of teleportation, but only ten people can be teleported at once.” Tsunade remembers to thank them later for their many sleepless and exhausting nights.

“Hmm. Quite a problem, unless you have all ten people somewhere in S rank territory.” Orochimaru interrupted her thoughts about the sealing core.

“However,” she glared at her teammate for interrupting her, “We can teleport them very quickly. If we prepare in advance, we can teleport ten people, one after another in just ten seconds of gap.”

“But you forget one issue. Raikage probably has thought through this, there will be anti-teleportation seals around the entire village.” Orochimaru reminded.

“It is no problem. If I can go there in advance, I can quickly disable them once I find the central seal matrices.” Assured Danzo.

“Hmhmhmhm. Then we can quickly get our strongest fighters there, and quickly take over the village.” Orochimaru laughed in amusement.

Tsunade, however just shook her head. “As if. Even if you somehow take out Raikage, you won’t be taking over that place anytime soon. Instead, I suggest that we use this advantage to corner Naruto, and finish him off there.”

“A better suggestion.” Danzo nodded approvingly.

The planning was done, now only the execution remains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back! The shifting went smoothly, have the internet back, college will be over in few months, I want to get in the software development, but don't know how to get there, and I still don't know what to do with my life.
> 
> At least I can write, that is something which gives me some semblance of peace.


End file.
